Konoha's Heir
by Pabloski33
Summary: Older Naruto, The Kyubi attack happens earlier….What happens if the Sandaime reveals the whole truth? Check as Naruto faces the ninja world older, smarter and more powerful.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**

This is the FIRST story (long…I hope) I write in English (I'm Chilean), so please have mercy if the grammar or redaction are a (lot) little off, and if you don't understand a thing, let me know it

This is kind of an experiment, I've written just two chapters so I'll continue this story depending on the comments (if you insult me about my English I probably end the whole thing to study some more)

I don't own Naruto or any character...yadda, yadda (You know this thing)

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**CHAPTER 1**

"Maybe I can call Jiraiya…That would stop your father for a while" said Naruto to his friend adding the '_hopefully_' in his mind, he was aware of the situation with the Uchiha clan and tried to find many solutions for his friend

"I don't know…he's very stubborn" said Itachi in a very calm tone, even Naruto thought his friend had quite a good emotional control to speak of the treachery his family was plotting so coldly…maybe…

The Uchiha prodigy saw the thinking process in Naruto's face and adopted a very sad look "I'm sorry my friend…but I have to do this" apologized the black haired boy before hitting the blond's neck

Said blond wasn't expecting something like that from Itachi of all people, so was caught unaware when the nocking strike came, with Naruto out of the way, the ANBU captain went to accomplish the mission, his last mission as a loyal Konoha Shinobi

During that night Itachi and Tobi killed all the Uchiha clan, Men, Women and Children…all of them had their last breath, all of them except a young Sasuke, the youngest son of the clan leader Uchiha Fugaku. Itachi had considered this plan for a while, despite his feeling he knew this was the only possible way to save Konoha and keep the good name of his clan

Now all his hopes were in his two brothers, Naruto and Sasuke, Naruto would ascend as Hokage and Sasuke would slay him avenging the clan and giving himself a reputation, in the meantime he would help Konoha keeping Akatsuki and Tobi away from the village

All his life would be a lie covered with nothing but shadows, but he was ready for it…all was for the sake of the village and his brothers, he would welcome any sacrifice in order to keep them safe

….

..

The next day Naruto woke up seeing a white ceiling, in that moment he realized something was wrong and the prior days memories hit him suddenly, he tore the machine connections and raced to the Hokage tower, he could see many ANBU patrolling the tower and the village in general so there was obvious something bad had happened, in the entrance there was a guard that should have stopped anyone who tried to get inside, but this was Naruto, he was the Yondaime Hokage's son and the Sandaime Hokage's student so they go out of his way

The blond opened the door to see his sensei and the other three elders, Shimura Danzo, Mikotado Homura and Utatane Koharu talking with Sarutobi. The old kage saw Naruto's eyes and knew what this was about "I think we should resume this meeting at another time" said the Sandaime and all the elders accepted his words, leaving the room without saying anything

"I want to know what happened, and why had to be Itachi of all people" demanded Naruto in a tone he didn't use very often, but was very convincing

The old kage looked to the village trough his windows, looking for the right words to explain all this mess, while the blond ninja sat in front of his desktop waiting for that answer "You are aware of the problem with the Uchiha clan…so this will have some sense to you" said the old man to begin his speech "But…what you don't know is that they were very impatient, they wanted more power and his intentions were growing bolder with every passing day… I'm not saying I agreed to this, but it got the problem solved with the minimum bloodshed…what I'm trying to say is that Itachi received a mission from the elders…to eliminate the whole Uchiha clan…and he did just that…with an exception… He killed all his clan, save for his little brother Sasuke" finished the Sarutobi clan leader with a very sad and somber expression

"¿Do you expect me to feel sympathy?" asked the blond with a very serious face "I knew the problems with the Uchiha clan…I even told Jiraiya so he could stay on ward in case I had to summon him, we outnumbered and bested their best ninjas…and you expect me to think it was the right choice?" asked Naruto standing up from the chair "You are my master and I respect and love you as such, but in this moment I'm very disappointed in you…just remember the next time you can't make a tough decision…I'm willing to take your place" said Naruto without looking him at the eye, before turning and leaving the office

'_Why didn't you let me take your place Minato?_' asked silently the Sandaime to the picture of his successor, who had been a very bright ninja, but didn't last as Hokage due to some unexpected events during the birth of his son that lead to his and his wife deaths, leaving an orphan jinchuuriki

But said jinchuuriki was the son of Minato Namikaze, one of the most powerful ninjas ever, so many people got interested in him, the village treated him as a hero, just as his father whished, but the other villages feared his development, soon after his third birthday was Konoha's turn to host the chunnin exams, and Naruto got attacked between the second and third phase of the event, so Jiraiya begun his training despite Sarutobi's protests. In the end, Jiraiya had to contact another spy and the Sandaime agreed to teach the boy…himself

Naruto entered the ninja academy at six, graduated at eight with Itachi Uchiha as his best friend and Shisui Uchiha as his sensei, at the age of eleven, both kids were Jounin. In this point they took different ways, Itachi became an ANBU while Naruto traveled with Jiraiya, the Uchiha learned about efficiency, stealth and effectiveness and the blond jinchuuriki trained to be a spy and a sage

Now both youngs were twenty years old and the best friends in the world…but sometimes fate is a cruel thing, and while Naruto was the light of Konoha, Itachi was a dark taboo, the blond came from the noble Uzumaki clan, almost as if he was from the Senju clan, related to the 2 first Hokages, student of the third and son of the fourth…all the people knew he was next in line. Itachi on the other side was the traitor, the prodigy that went mad with his power and killed his clan becoming Konoha's number 1 criminal

….

..

Hiruzen was a little confused, he expected Naruto to run in chase of his friend, but he blond just stayed in the village, he was very lonely and wasn't attending to his duties as a Jounin of the leaf, but he could look past that. He knew the boy and that was the reason for his concern…Naruto was up to something and while he had an absolute trust in his disciple, he was a little nervous because he has never faced a so distressed Naruto

Said Jinchuuriki was meditating over the tallest tree in the forest of death, usually the place was very lonely and quiet, at least when Anko wasn't around, but she was on a mission out of the village and he was having another talking

'_What do you think Kurama?_' asked the blond to the beast he was keeping at bay in the seal

'**I told you my opinion of him the first day we met him…You have sensed it yourself…that guy means bad news…he's the kind of man that would let Konoha burn…just to be king of the ashes**' answered Kurama, saying the same as always

'_You really warned me about Danzo…thank you my friend…now I see what must be done'_ Said the Uzumaki before bumping his fist with the fox claw as a good bye sign

Naruto opened his eyes showing an orange shadow around them, the only demonstration of his sage mode, he concentrated on Danzo chakra signature and went for him, the jinchuuriki wasn't seeking vengeance, he was trying to avoid future unnecessary deaths

The old Danzo was aware of the village status, he knew the people, civilian or ninja, were shocked with the news of the Uchiha Clan's demise, he knew there were very little people that was aware that all of that had been his decision…but even with those little selected knowing, he was very careful, he walked very crowded streets and in the shadows he was always warded by his bests men

He was returning to the root barracks as usual when a soldier ran to bow in front of him "Danzo-sama I must warn you about the foreign chakra in your shadow" said the masked ninja, when the old war hawk paled

Naruto got out of the elder shadow with a grin on his face "You must be quite a specialized sensor to pick my chakra while in sage mode" complimented the jinchuuriki, smiling at the frozen Danzo, before appearing before said sensor "Too specialized for your own good" added before the ninja fell to the floor

'_So this the famous sage mode…I have informs about Jiraiya performance with it and they always said the he summoned some old toads and got a weird face, but it seem this boy has gone beyond him_' analyzed while his subordinate was lying dead on the floor "¿What do you want?" asked the man, putting some distance between the jinchuuriki and him

"I just came here to prevent another massacre in the name of the village well-being" answered the Uzumaki taking a weird stance…must be something of toads thought Danzo

"¿You came to face me here?" asked the old man…trying to intimidate this skilled young man "Naruto Uzumaki…son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, genin at 8, Jounin at 11, student of Sarutobi Hiruzen and Jiraiya of the Sanin, ninjutsu specialist with a natural talent for fuuinjutsu like the most of his clan, elemental affinity for wind, special traits…being the Kyubi jinchuuriki and a Sage" recited Danzo as if he was reading all of that in a book " Do you think I'm not prepared to fight a brat?" asked finally the old man taking a cocky pose

"Well…the thing is not about whether you are prepared or not…" began Naruto saying with the same grin, just before moving to Danzo's back too fast for him to see "…it is whether you can do something or not" murmured in the crippled man ear, making him jump many meters away from the young Jounin. Danzo made a signal and his two elite bodyguards were at his side

Naruto took a breath and said loud "Any of you willing to surrender to the good of Konoha, Kneel and keep away from this fight…if you move to protect this madman, you will not move again" finished Naruto before doing some handsigns "Genjutsu: Kokuangyo no Jutsu" (bringer of the darkness)

The whole place become absolutely black, no one could see past his nose or hear a thing, Danzo knew this technique, this was Tobirama's genjutsu, it blocked all external senses leaving people helpless while he located them with his sensor ability. The old man felt some vibration at his feet and lowered his body to touch the lifeless bodies of his two bodyguards; obviously the blond had a way to locate his enemies inside this jutsu, so he was facing a huge handicap

Danzo tried using some wide area futon jutsus, but the genjutsu didn't falter, he cursed the blond for messing in his plans, but had no other choice than lift the bandage on his face, showing a Sharingan eye…Shisui's

The problem was that even the priced Sharingan was a defenseless tool against that jutsu, all the red eye could see was a big amount of chakra everywhere…it was like instead of seeing everything black…now he saw it in blue

Just when he was doing the handsigns for summoning, he felt a movement around him and then all was gone, he never saw the wind blade that removed his head from his body as he fell dead on the floor

When the fight was over, he dissipated the genjutsu letting the root ANBU see the lifeless body of his master and his closest bodyguards, he studied Danzo body and got shocked when realized that the eye under the bandages was a Sharingan eye…the massacre had just been some days ago so this meant that eye came prior to that…but when did a Sharingan eye got lost….

¡Shisui-sensei!...He said he lost the eye in an ambush, but now everything made sense, even Itachi role in all of that, there many thing he still didn't know so until he could talk with his friend, he had to train and prepare for the future

….

..

Naruto was watching the whole village over the Hokage monument, when he felt a sudden disturbance in the air "Working so late sensei?" asked the jinchuuriki to the newcomer

"Naruto, What have you done?" asked a very concerned and confused Sandaime Hokage

"I took care of Danzo to avoid another massacre" confessed Naruto as if it was just a joke

"What is wrong with you?" asked an angry Hiruzen "You can't go killing people for personal reasons without getting a serious punishment" added the Sandaime Hokage in a very bad mood, he thought Naruto could do something to the massacre's responsibles…but this was completely out of place

"I just dealt with a leaf criminal" was the answer from Minato's legacy, who turned back facing his master and giving him a folder "You always suspected him…here is all the proof, he even attacked Shisui-sensei to get his Sharingan, I saw it on his face under those bandages" told the blond, leaving a stunned Hiruzen

"Are you sure of all of this?" questioned an incredulous Sarutobi, he knew Danzo was a dark man full of secrets but he trusted his love for the village. It took this folder to see he was a corrupt and power thirsty old man that put the village as an excuse

"I'm positive" said quickly Naruto "I found this documents and saw the Sharingan eye myself" explained the Uzumaki, before gathering some resolve to say the next line "The main reason for his death was his influence over the village and you…but in the end, the facts gave me the reason on this" confessed again the jinchuuriki, getting a serious glare from the Hokage "Don't worry, I won't look further…this Uchiha episode ended here…but keep my words in mind…the day you think you are not able to make tough choices…I'll be waiting for the hat" concluded the jinchuuriki before disappearing in a swirl of wind

…

..

The next day was a really long one for the old Sarutobi Hizuren, the was in his office after a lot of meetings, some of them were about the repercussions of the Uchiha Massacre, the rest were about Danzo demise…somehow he was founded dead in the forest…all looked as a suicide…the was even a suicide note on his house. That was the same way Shisui death was…probably his student was trying to prove something or saying some hidden message with that

It had no reason, but he remembered the day he started training a very little Naruto, he had been attacked on the chunnin exams so Jiraiya began teaching him the basis of chakra and weapons, a month later he had to meet a contact so Naruto came to his office asking for help with his chakra, he said Jiraiya's instructions were "Focus on the inside of your body and towards your belly, there will be a mass of chakra for you to grab it with your mind as hard as you can" Sarutobi was curious because that was a very basic exercise a jinchuuriki should have no problem with

But Naruto's answer explained the problem "I can feel the energy…but I don't know which one to grab" and then realization hit the Hokage, little 3 years Naruto had access to Kyubi's chakra so it made necessary for him to learn about this as soon as possible or he would end releasing the fox unintentionally

Naruto was a fast learner, he paid attentions and even if he learned by physically doing the stuff, he had a sharp mind with a very accurate spatial reasoning…he could read something and imagine himself doing it, or he could try to deduce the field effect of the jutsu he just read

Sarutobi found very soon his student main ability, at the age of seven he introduced him to elemental ninjutsu, the blond natural affinity was for wind, but he had a deeper elemental affinity of sorts, he could transform his chakra into any nature of chakra with ease and those elemental attack had a lot of power behind, the old kage compared it with Tobirama's High suiton affinity, but in Naruto's case he had an affinity towards all five elements, wind being the leader

That made him a ninjutsu specialist, he could learn and perform practically any elemental ninjutsu in record time, the blond was probably the only person other than Kakashi that could rival him in terms of number of ninjutsu, even if all of them had some kind of special trait that separated them, Sarutobi had many years and war as experience, Kakashi had the Sharingan to copy tons of jutsus and Naruto had the ability to learn and create them quite fast

When he made Jounin he realized he could be the most powerful man in a team, and that brought a new level of responsibilities so he became a rounded ninja, he improved his seal mastery and added some genjutsus, his taijutsu was decent but he never worried about that

After the training Jiraiya gave him, he came back four years later as a sage; his ninjutsu, fuuinjutsu and speed skyrocketed, the sanin even said that Naruto's sage mode was better than his own. The two of them never had an all-out battle, but in the spars they were kind of even

Sarutobi knew Naruto was the best candidate for the Godaime Hokage position, he always tried to delay things for him, trying to giving him time to enjoy his life…despite the fact that Naruto looked happy very often…the reason? He loved being the best, getting what he wanted and protecting his loved ones

Maybe it was time of stepping down and leaving the village in the shoulders of the new generation…or he could give Naruto something he hasn't had yet

….

..

"Are you going to make me a Jounin sensei?" asked a confused Naruto who wanted to guide the village for what he thought was the right path and the old man gave him a bunch of kids

"Yes…it has no relationship with your other aspirations…but I thought that you haven't had any student…and believe when I say the experience of teaching can be very enlightening" was the answer of a smiling Sarutobi, who was counting on Naruto forming a bond with his team

He always regretted not letting him be a child or a young man…he was always training, always reading and studying…Itachi was his only friend aside from his masters and mentors, Kakashi was an acquaintance and that was all, he lacked bonds with his peers, people respected him and kept him in good light, but they didn't follow him…yet

"And…What will I get for this team?" asked a not very convinced Naruto, the blond was confused for the surprising assignment, but it was something new…and maybe, just maybe it could be good in the end

"Your students…if you pass them, will be Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino y Hyuga Hinata" read Sarutobi from the folder on his desk, the blond pick it up and left the room with his full mind on it

'_I hope this is the beginning of something great'_ whished the Hokage looking and the sky and the stone faces that looked over the village '_please help my young student to make the right decisions In his life_' prayed the old monkey to his god…the will of fire

….

..

Naruto was reading his student's files, he knew the Jounin test was about teamwork and was aware that sometimes young genin did not tend to work together at first so he thought for some test that gave them the right pointers and the chances to fail many times before achieving the objective '_If I'm right, they are perfect for a scouting and tracking team with two close range specialist and a nice long range support type…let see them_' concluded the jinchuuriki after reading their files

On the academy, the blond greeted some other Jounin, before enter the classroom and call the team 8 members to come with him, they followed him through the village till they were in the training field number nine, the one he used almost exclusively "Well we're here because you passed the first exam so you are able to become genin…but ultimately that's up to me" explained Naruto getting incredulous and curious looks from his soon-to-be students

"What was the point of that farce?" asked an annoyed Kiba, while Akamaru was looking at him warily, he had felt his inhuman chakra levels and was a little intimidated

"Akamaru…you don't have to worry about me…I probably am the person with the greatest chakra capacity in the whole village, but I won't hurt neither of you" said the Jounin to easy the wary dog "Second…that is some kind of ritual, the first exam is to prove you have the basics abilities to become shinobi, but there is a principle highly praised and used by Konoha's Shinobi-" began to explain the blond about the real exam to give them some clue

"Teamwork" said the usually silent and stoic Aburame, interrupting Naruto with the right answer

Said jinchuuriki just smiled and put his hands on his pockets "You beat me…with that said there is no point on keeping this thing on…but I need you to remember, your first priority are your teammates, their safety and wellbeing is before any mission parameter, and while individual strength is necessary, teamwork is the edge that has made Konoha victorious many times in the past wars" said the blond, trying to make them understand the main philosophy in Konoha

Despite not saying anything else, the blond saw their faces and eyes, they respected him and heard his words with a complete attention, he was quite famous in the village so that wasn't new, but it was nice to get that reactions from young kids "Now we're officially team 8, so we need to know each other" established Naruto getting nods from his students "as you know my full name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, I took the Uzumaki name to not let the Uzumaki clan die with me. My hobbies are training and eating ramen, I like fair people, my friends and my masters…I strongly dislike people that abuses of his power and my dream for the future is to lead this village to a path of peace" told Naruto to introduce himself "Now I'd like to hear about each one of you" asked finally

"Well I'm going first" declared Kiba, without complains from his teammates "My name is Kiba Inuzuka and this is my partner Akamaru" introduced Kiba, pointing his dog "I like playing and training with him or with my family…I dislike cats and people that mistreat animals, and my dream for the future is be a good clan leader" finished his speech, getting a nod from the blond

"I'll be next" stated Shino before speaking "My name is Shino Aburame so I came from the Aburame clan, as such we cohabitate with kikaichu bugs to aids us on battle and life, I like my family and the members of this team…I don't have many friends outside this group…and my dream for the future is to be a good man" concluded a logical and precise Shino, who also got a nod from Naruto

Hinata started when Naruto smiled at her "Mm…my name is Hyuga Hinata…I like to drink tea and sitting on my garden, I dislike people that underestimates or mistreats me and my dream for the future is proving everyone I can be a proud Hyuga ninja" said Hinata getting some confidence from the positive environment their sensei seemed to establish between all of them

The rest of the day was spent sparring to know each one abilities and weakness, they would need to know that they could expect from their teammates in a fight and know when they were in real problems, so the fought against each other and against Naruto, who also was analyzing their performance to establish the training priorities

At the next day, team 9 was introduced to the civilian chores called D rank missions, Kiba was a little naïve so he was very disappointed in their first jobs like painting fences, cleaning parks or babysitting kids, but what made him explode was that damn demon-cat named Tora, that beast was a nightmare and he vowed to destroy it

The team members were quite friendly towards each other and with their sensei, they use to do some mission in the morning and train on afternoons, before calling it a day. That was the routine for the first three weeks until Naruto declared them able to take a C rank mission, Sarutobi was glad to see Naruto's calm and happy face while dealing with his team, he was a good teacher, he could motivate people to give their best and that made him proud and happy

The C rank mission was to deliver some documents to the Mizukage for signing, they were some financial papers so they were not that important, but it was a good show to keep the Mizukage in touch, so naturally this mission had to be handed to the blond, who was on friendly terms with Yagura and Kirigakure in general

"Alright team, we'll meet in the east gate in two hours, pack for a week" ordered Naruto before disappearing in a shunshin, while his students ran to their houses to pack their stuff

Three hours later, team 8 was traveling to Mizu no Kuni, they were jumping through the trees, all the genin were able to walk on solid surfaces and the travel would be perfect to teach them how to walk on water "Sensei…Why are we doing a mission to Kirigakure if they have their own ninjas?" asked Hinata a little curious about that whole thing

"Well…this mission has many reasons" started the blond thinking about the information that he could tell "First, papers from the Hokage should be only be carried by Konoha ninja, otherwise they might be stolen or forged" answered getting understanding nods from Hinata "And another of the reasons is to enforce our alliance with Kirigakure, It's like we're going there to say Konoha is with you guys" quoted the Jounin noticing the eyebrow Shino lifted

"Is there any need of…remind them about the alliance?" asked a worried Aburame fearing a trap or attack in the way between Konoha and the Mizukage's office

"Something like that" confessed their sensei "Some time ago, Kirigakure was on a civil war, the Mizukage started to ban and simply murdering keke genkai wielders" at this point Hinata stopped and got to the ground, a little shaken, Shino was very close to that feeling "Well, we're doing a fast travel so we can stop for a while" added Naruto to try lifting the mood, he got some wood from a wind-cutted tree so they gathered around a small fire "This is not general knowledge so you can't divulge it with someone that doesn't know" warned Naruto getting the silent vow from his genin "as I was saying, Yagura chased people with keke genkai to death…but obviously the bloodline survivors teamed up making a resistance against their kage, both sides were numerous so the whole country was caught in the civil war…it even killed the mizu daimiyo" explained the jinchuuriki looking the captivated faces of the kids "In the middle of all of this, my sensei and me were traveling around the world and we ended in Kirigakure…we did some kind of service to the village and the civil war ended soon after, and as a reward Kiri allied with Konoha" finished the history lesson Naruto

The genins were quite surprised because they knew Naruto was known for his heritage, but a two man team finishing a war? That was awesome

"Why do Kiri need the reminder of Konoha's presence?" asked Shino, getting a smile from his sensei, who realized the good reasoning behind that question

"Because we kept Yagura as the Mizukage…people and some ninjas in Kirigakure doesn't trust him…but we do, so the alliance is what keeps the Mizukage in his office" answered honestly Naruto, hoping nothing of it was known, because that was a known fact that nobody dared to say out loud

"But…if he killed bloodline wielders…shouldn't you arrest him or something and put a better person in his place?" asked a confused Kiba, he was more naïve in that sense…but he was surprised to see In Hinata's face that she knew the answer

"Could you answer your teammate Hinata?" asked her sensei, making her blush a little

"If the Mizukage was replaced in the middle of a civil war…many people would try to take the place and there would be a new war for the Mizukage's seat" explained the shy Hyuga getting a nod of approval from his sensei and his last teammate

After that a more relaxed team 8 traveled to Mizu no kuni, there was a land way to reach the ninja village so they took it, hoping the return would be by water. After six days they arrived to the gates of the village hidden by the mist "Uzumaki-san please hand us yours and your team identifications" asked a guard recognizing Minato's heir, and making his students to put a pride face for his master

After the typical check, team 8 was inside kirigakure, there was a lot of mist and water in the air, it seemed a heaven for suiton users because they had and endless water supply, one of the bigger differences was the high of the constructions, in Konoha there were many buildings with two or more floors, in Kiri the water in the air made difficult to make concrete buildings so most houses or stores were wood-made save for the Mizukage bulding that was made of some kind of slime hardened rock or something like that

Within the village there was a lot of movement, ninjas running on roofs and streets and the busy merchants and civilians doing their work, many ninjas greeted Naruto making his students realize why they got this mission, he was the reminder of the alliance

When they arrived to the kage's tower, Naruto asked them to stay in the hall and waiting for him "keep out of problems please…specially you Kiba" ordered their sensei with smile for the last part, earning a chuckle from his teammates

"Hello Naruto…it's nice to see you" said a more mature Yagura from his desk, the Yondaime Mizukage was backed for Konoha, but more specifically for Naruto. It was the blond who realized the whole Masked-Sharingan-Guy thing that made Yagura act as a madman, after he told Jiraiya about the Kyubi ramblings, the toad sanin used the sage mode to free the Sanbi from the doujutsu's control and practically waking-Yagura-up from a long nightmare

"Same here" said a happy blond shaking hands with him "I brought some scrolls for you to sign" added Naruto putting the scrolls over his desk "but that's not important…How have you been since last time?" asked a concerned blond who always tried to help his Jinchuuriki-fellas

"Well, old people is the same…those that lost someone in the civil war give me a cold glare and some of the rebels too…but the younger generations seems to be free of their hate" replied a thoughtful Mizukage remembering the firsts days after Naruto's departure "I been training to rise my synchrony with Isobu and helping Utakata to withstand Saiken's power" explained the Mizukage with a smile on his face, he was happy that Utakata trusted and relied on him

After the whole incident they were kind of close to each other, but very people knew it. Naruto, Jiraiya, Sarutobi and Yagura were sharing ideas about this masked guy that controlled the Mizukage and messed with the blond's birth, forcing his parents to sacrifice themselves. They knew about the masked Sharingan-wielder man, Yagura said something about a black robe with red clouds and Jiraiya had some rumors about this organization through his track of Orochimaru's movements

The things they knew at this moments were: This organization had an icon, the black robe with red clouds, Orochimaru, Kisame and this masked guy were part of it and there were many rumors about them in the black markets, so they must be a serious criminal organization

Naruto stayed a week in Kirigakure no sato so he used the time to train his students in chakra control and some combat situations that they were likely to find against a Kiri ninja, like the hidden mist jutsu, the blond Jounin was able to produce a very thick mist so his genin had a hard time finding him, but with time and practice they improved as sensor and their combat awareness let them fight in that environment

The jinchuuriki spent some time with Yagura and Utakata, helping the last one with his bijou, Naruto was nowhere near Yagura or Bee in his "Jinchuuriki-training" but he was on good terms with Kurama and they still fought together…just through another way

On the way back, the four-man squad traveled by water, running across many lakes and rivers before arriving Hi no Kuni and later Konhagakure, the Chunin gatekeepers greeted then and let them enter the village

"And that is the mission report" informed Naruto to Sarutobi, telling him the aspects about his official mission before dismissing his genin team

"Is there something to add?" asked the Sandaime Hokage now that there were no more people in the room "The things are the same, Yagura is getting more support from the younger generations so…with time the Kiri situation will improve, he doesn't have new information about the red cloud organization, but he's getting his sync with Isobu back while introducing Utakata to Saiken's power" explained Naruto in a brief explanation about the last mission

"How was your team performance?" asked the old man, making Naruto thing a little before speaking "I told them about my role as a reminder of Konoha's presence…I think this'll be an eye opener for politics and the consequences of our acts in the big scheme of things" said the sensei of team 8 "and their abilities are improving steadily" added finally giving him his complete assessment of his students

"I'm happy to see you teaching and molding their young minds… I've always thought that the student is not the only that learns something" shared Sarutobi as a reflection for his promising student

"I'm training some of my future people of trust…after all a hokage needs trustworthy people in the field" said Naruto before leaving the office with a smiling face


	2. Chapter 2

Before saying anything related to the story, I wanted to say THANK YOU to all the people that has commented or followed the story, the first chapter was well accepted, so here is the next one, if you have any kind of criticism please be honest and say it, this is a work in progress

I'm working on the third chapter right now, but I have many things to do, so I can't make any promises, but I'll publish it as soon as I can

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**Chapter 2**

Naruto was watching his team training, today they were fighting one his shadow clones, this had exactly one tenth of his real strength but…even with that handicap, the jounin's construct was a better fighter than the genin, but it gave them some real experience against a stronger (not THAT strong) enemy

Hinata stopped when a bird was in his byakugan's range, said hawk landed on Naruto's shoulder letting him get a scroll "Well it seems we're required for a special mission" said the blond, getting his students's attention "Go to your homes, take a shower and pack to cold weather for a few days…be at the north gates in two hours" ordered Naruto to his genin, said kids nodded and hasted to their homes

'_Something must have happened for Jiraiya to call me_' thought Naruto remembering the mission note that said Jiraiya asked for a meeting with you in the lands of iron, so you and your team are going there for a trading treaty…the information given to the genin is up to you I hope it's about Akatsuki…I would really like to measure myself against one of them

-Two hours later-

"Today we're going to the iron country" stated Naruto before starting jumping to the nearest tree; with his team following behind "This is a special place because they have no ninja at all…yet they've stayed neutral in all previous ninja wars with the power to back up this neutrality" told the Jounin to his surprised team

"How can they fight against ninjas without ninjas of his own?" asked an incredulous Kiba, while Hinata and Shino were thinking in the same line

"Because they have samurais" answered Naruto surprising them "and despite not being as famous as some legendary ninjas…they are quite capable…I don't know their ranks…but it's said that the country's leader is as powerful as a Kage" added Naruto who had never fought a samurai, but heard some lectures from Sarutobi and Jiraiya about their speed and brutal attacks

"If there was some conflict…I think we'd be on a poor position…none of us uses weapons able to parry theirs swords" concluded Shino after thinking about it

"You may have a point Shino" begun Naruto with a reflection "but Ninjas are not always frontal warriors, as a ninja you have to choose in your career, you can be a man with many abilities or talents like Sandaime-sensei who's proficient in almost all ninja arts or you and aim to specialize in one or two areas, take me for example I'm a ninjutsu specialist with a great ability for hand to hand combat so if I were to fight a samurai, I would have to stop their wrists or block their arms to avoid their weapon" explained Naruto taking a breath before adding something "In a fight, all our abilities and talents are weapons, just like their swords, my ninjutsu is a weapon or hinata's Byakugan is a weapon too and at the end of the day the winner is not the one wielding the biggest or strongest weapon, the winner is the one who uses the weapons he has with most proficiency"

After that long speech Naruto kept silent letting his students to think about that in order to assimilate the need of a keen mind in the battle field, you may have some disadvantage, but if you're able to find your opponent weakness, that turns into your favor

After six hours of tree-traveling they stopped to have lunch, the Jounin got some cold rations packs with real food instead of pills and the four of them ate in silence, before resuming a two days journey into the land of iron

After showing the official documents, they were allowed in the land of iron, while two samurais escorted Konoha's team to Mifune's office, the kids were very cold, but tried to act as if they were able to fight at the minimal threat

They arrived to a big complex with a wide open door with two samurai on each side, the warriors kept stoic and inexpressive to the people, the group walked inside the building and went in some offices before standing in front of an old armor wielding samurai "Greetings my guests, my name is Mifune, I was informed you came from Konoha for negotiations…but let me warn you, Iron country is neutral to ninja affairs" stated Mifune with a cold voice

"For a neutral country your attitude is quite hostile" said Naruto looking to the man's eyes "whatever…if you read this document you will realize Konoha's not trying anything weird, it's just steel per lumber" answered Naruto making some of the other samurai gasp at the blond attitude, Mifune was a hard man very wary of ninjas, but usually they didn't speak back or complain about the treatment they got

After that Mifune accepted the scroll sent by the Hokage and said they we going to discuss the terms and asked them to wait a couple of days for the answer, Naruto nodded and left the room with his genin team "Sensei, Won't you get in trouble for speaking to him like that?" asked a worried Hinata, getting a smile from Naruto

"You don't have to worry…my sensei has trained me in politics so I know what I am doing" said first to assure her "There's a big possibility of me being the next Hokage in some years so I have to make other leaders to respect me from now…usually powerful people doesn't make wars from some trash talking and even if they got angry, I can protect myself quite well" confessed Naruto, making Kiba and Hinata look at him in awe

'_Did Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama feel this way while training under Sandaime-sama's guidance?'_ asked Hinata to herself, she always thought Naruto was practically a legend in process and she was happy to be a small part of that legend, it was something to say with pride I was the Hokage's student

Naruto left his team to rest in a spa, while he went to check the place, so the genin stayed in the rooms, Hinata went to the hot springs while Kiba, Akamaru and Shino slept for a while.

The blond Jounin from Konoha was looking for Jiraiya, the Iron country was cold, but that wasn't the biggest problem, for some reason the people had some hostility towards ninjas so most of the people on the streets tried to avoid him '_Kurama, I need your help_' asked Naruto with a thought

"**That old man is behind the mountain you see ahead"** answered the Kyubi, after finding the pervert, '_thanks_'

….

..

Naruto jumped from the tree to face Jiraiya, while the man was drinking some hot tea "How have you been?" asked the blond greeting his godfather and sensei

"Very busy…but that is normal for me" answered Jiraiya with a grin on his face

"Get serious please…it's too cold to waste time here" said Naruto, he realized this was a safe place to speak, there were no people near and they would be able to detect any foreign energy so it was proper place to speak freely

"Ok, don't get to old" joked Jiraiya as usual when he felt Naruto was being serious "I found about your friend Itachi, he joined Akatsuki" said Jiraiya, making Naruto open his eyes in surprise

Then the Jounin thought it was time to tell Jiraiya the truth, so he told him about the Uchiha Massacre and Danzou's plot…to say the sanin was stunned was little "Why wasn't I told before?" asked a confused sage

"I don't know…I only deduced the whole thing after waking up in the hospital, I was talking with Itachi, then he knocked me and the next thing I hear is this…so I demanded the truth to the old man and later I killed Danzou to find he had taken Shisui's sensei Sharingan" added the blond "let me tell you, It was a hell of a week"

Jiraiya wasn't sure what to think now, in that moment he lost a great deal of respect to his sensei, as a spy he had to know things like that to avoid wrong decisions, what if he would have killed Itachi the first time they met to learn afterwards they were in the same side? On the other side his trust in Naruto raised, the blond shared this with him and took actions against Danzo, something he had advised Sarutobi a long time ago

"I need to find itachi, there is something else I don't know and I must find it" said a frustrated Naruto, he suspected all of this was around the masked man Kurama spoke of, a powerful Sharingan wielder calling himself Uchiha Madara and fighting his father on his birth wasn't something to dismiss

"There's another new I picked on the way…there seems to be a new ninja village in the Rice field country, it's called the Hidden Sound" told Jiraiya to his godson who looked surprised

"Do we have to worry about them?" asked a concerned blond with this new development

"I don't know for certain…" said Jiraiya getting a tell me what's on your mind look from Naruto "I don't have any proof, but I've seen some sound's ninjas and they remind me of Orochimaru" confessed the toad sage

"I think you are one of the people that knows him the best so I'm trusting your judgment" answered Naruto, getting a smile from Jiraiya "Try to focus on this new hidden village, I can deal when Itachi when I find him, but Orochimaru should be our main concern" asked the blond

'_You are going to be a good Hokage_' thought Jiraiya looking at his godson "will do kiddo" said the sanin before standing up and leaving the forest

After Jiraiya's leave the blond realized there was a lot of time since he was in a weather this cold, so he went a little further away the city to get a feel of nature on top of a mountain, sitting on the snow he channeled some chakra and suddenly the snow stopped in midair, Naruto stood up and started to move his hands to control the water around him with his elemental chakra control

He was a very talented elemental ninjutsu user, Sarutobi thought that trough the Uzumaki blood line he could have gotten some kind of elemental ability like Tobirama…with the difference it worked with all the elements

After manipulating the water in the air, Naruto gathered a big snow sphere over him, before release it to melt it with a giant exhaled fireball, Sarutobi was quite surprised when Naruto started to manipulate the elements just with chakra control and focus, he was able to make a lot of elemental ninjutsu without handseals and thanks to the power and density of his chakra, his attacks were far more powerful than most of his enemies's

By the end of the week team 8 was back in town, Naruto didn't say anything about Jiraiya or Itachi to his team, those were secrets too big to share, first he needed to contact Itachi and then he would make some solid plan, for now all he could do was prepare his genins to the next exams and train himself to face these "Akatsuki" guys

….

..

"Shouldn't you spend some time with other people? Hopefully your age?" asked Sarutobi to Naruto while he was training in the hokage's private training field, an isolated place with strong suppression seals

"Itachi was my only friend…call him and I'll spend some time with him" answered Naruto reminding the old man of his last mistake, let Itachi deal with all the Uchiha trouble

"That was mean" added the Sandaime Hokage "How are your students?" asked the old kage taking away his formal robes, showing a battle armor

"They've been ready since a while….and so you it seems" said Naruto before getting his guard up, this would be another of the student-teacher sparrings, both were quite powerful and while Sarutobi had more variety, Naruto had more power, raw power not just from the Kyubi, his own power

…

..

"So this mission is to contact with Kirigakure's teams at the frontier and protect them until they get inside Konoha, Any question?" asked Sarutobi to team 8

"Hokage-sama Why are we here?" asked Kiba, because the mission was just Naruto's, with the exams so close they couldn't risk their participation

"Because I wanted for Naruto to go very quickly and for you to know why he's not going to be training you" answered the old kage, getting a nod from the three genin of Naruto's squad

"Well at this point you should just train lightly with your families and rest" said Naruto with a very bright smile "I know you will do great" added giving a tap on their shoulders before leaving through the window

"Hokage-sama…With you being our sensei's sensei, do you know how strong is he?" asked a curious Hinata getting a chuckle from the old man "Honestly…I don't know, while we spar none of us goes all-out because of special techniques are deadly, but some time ago Jiraiya said he fought with him, full power and the result was a tie…that was a really eye-opener, I think Naruto's surpassed me, but he's not showing off to not hurt my feelings, which tells me he's a really good man" told the third Hokage to the shocked boys, the third Hokage admitting someone else was stronger than him

After that, Hinata thanked the Hokage and the whole team left the office, Sarutobi thought about Naruto, maybe now he was ready to take the hat, probable a strong new leader would take Konoha to a new golden era, so he took a special stamp reserved for the messages with the fire daimiyo

…

When Kiri's group arrived to the land of fire, they saw Naruto waiting for them "Are you all the protection they sent?" asked an irked Zabuza

"I don't know what your problem with me is, but we're in our country, there are periodical patrols around and if your country pays for an ANBU team, then they'll get one" replied Naruto very coldly, he didn't knew this guy in person, but he was an ass in his eyes already

"Please ignore Zabuza Uzumaki-kun" asked one of the Jounin sensei, and someone Naruto knew, she was Mei Terumi, one of the main rebel leaders, that join Yagura after the truth was told to avoid more bloodshed "We're happy to have you with us, so please show the way" added with a very captivating smile

Then a little crowd traveled to Konoha jumping through the tree branches for some hours before taking a break "What have you been up to Uzumaki-kun?" asked Mei to the blond, who blushed a little before looking at other way for a seconds as if he was thinking about his answer

"I've been training my own genin team" said Naruto, getting a surprised look from the woman

"You are one of the most powerful ninja in Konoha…and they put you in a genin team?" asked again Mei, her head was messed up; things were different in Kiri, a lot harsher, so in her mind this was a waste of resources

"Well, you see" started Naruto to distract her a little from those thoughts "My sensei had a team knows as the legendary three" said the blond knowing that his relationship with the third Hokage was common knowledge "So he thinks very strongly that when you teach something, it's not only the students who learns something…and now I agree with him" ended Naruto with a smile

To Mei, Naruto was odd, the guy was insanely powerful, she saw him fighting Yagura like three years ago while one of the sanin, Jiraiya, took care of the masked-man influence on him, and Naruto wasn't running around to avoid the attacks, he fought on even terms to buy time and that he did, in the end the fight lasted around one hour and he wasn't even wounded…and with all of that, he was wasting his time with kids

"Mei, we're not at war out here" said a reassuring jinchuuriki "Konoha doesn't need me killing enemy ninjas 24/7" added him "We have team capable of dealing with S rank missions, and if my abilities were needed, then I leave my kids with some training to do and do the damn mission" explained Naruto without getting in to the will of fire thing, there was too many people around

After a couple of days they reached Konohagakure's gates, from Kiri came four teams, Zabuza's, Mei's, Raiga's and Kimimaro's

…

"I'm very proud of you guys, do your best" said Naruto to his team in the front of the real door, he was waiting to give them the last encouraging words before their test, he had a lot of faith in them, in the six months they have been a team, they got stronger and smarter, both of them, abilities a Chunin needed and the judges needed to see in then in order to promote them

…

Kiba face showed a cocky grin, there was a lot of people from everywhere, he saw some headbands from Suna, Kiri, Kusa, Ame and a weird one with a musical note on it, Sasuke came in the room calling the attention of Ino, who got into a silly argument with Sakura

"Were all of us like that?" asked a very embarrassed Kiba, while Akamaru looked around

"You were closer to that than any of us" said Shino, making Kiba feel even more embarrassment, while Hinata let out a little chuckle

Without care about girls problems, Shikamaru came to greet team 8 and wish them all good luck, Chouji did the same little after and finally it was Sasuke turn to came up to act tough in front of the rest of the people

"Alright maggots, this is Ibiki Morino and the chunin's selection exams begins…NOW!" shouted the first examiner, making all of the genin shake a little, many of them could be used to killing right now, but this man was scary

…

..

After an information gathering test, Anko jumped into the room and shake the genin a little, there were around twelve teams in the second phase, Konoha's teams were talking a little before taking different ways

At the signal the doors were opened and the teams rushed inside the forest, team 8 had a little advantage over other teams, all their members were good sensors and Naruto shaped them into good fighters too. Hinata led them with her Byakugan to ambush a team from the rain village

When they found themselves surrounded by the Konoha's ninjas, they used some mist clones, but Kiba stated they were simple illusions and had no scent or physical form, so he used his "Four Legs Technique" and quickly knocked all three of them with a great speed

"After fighting Naruto-sensei's clones these fools were nothing" said Shino seeing the little effort Kiba had to do, meanwhile the Aburame checked their things and found the same scroll they had

"Man, this sucks" replied Kiba, before Hinata said to keep the extra scroll just in case

When Hinata tensed, Kiba and Shino looked everywhere, there was a faint sound in the area "Get down!" exclaimed Hinata, before an umbrella appeared out of nowhere and started throwing senbos needles "Water Release: Water Encampment Wall" said Hinata, before making some sort of water dome around his teammates

After the opening attack was done, three rain ninja appeared around team 8, when the umbrella returned to his owner, they saw the same umbrella in all the team members, "Hinata, cover us" asked Kiba, before standing up "Beast Human Clone" cried Kiba before akamaru's transformation. Both Inuzuka charged at the closest enemy who opened his umbrella to attack again, but Hinata somehow moved quick enough to hold his hand and take the umbrella from him "Fang Passing Fang" cried Kiba attacking the owner of the first umbrella, surprising him

Meanwhile, Shino engaged the third member of rain team in combat, keeping him avoiding if kikaichu bugs with little success, so when Kiba knocked his enemy down, both he and Hinata were done fighting. The Hyuga heiress took one of the beaten genin and showed the needed scroll

"Team 8 rules!" said Kiba very loudly before Shino warned about the possibility of an enemy team finding them, so after that display, the three kids went straight to the tower

….

..

While the genin teams were on the second phase of the exams, Sarutobi and Naruto were discussing some things about politics when a Chunin opened the door very abruptly "What is the meaning of this?" asked a serious Hokage

"Hokage-sama something happened in the Chunin exams" said the Chunin before catching his breath "After the start of the second phase, we found a Kusa team dead outside the forest, at a closer inspection we found their faces removed…as if they were stolen-" explained the ninja, before Sarutobi interruption

"-Orochimaru…that is his trademark" stated Sarutobi who knew the sanin very well "If he did this, he must want us to know about his presence" added Sarutobi thinking that his old student used precisely a technique he knew very well

"Anko-sempai said the same and went into the forest to-" was trying to explain the Chunin, but was almost blown out of the office by a strong wind "-What was that?" asked the same ninja

"Naruto realized Anko is trying to fight Orochimaru, but in this village there is just two people able to deal with him and Anko is not one of them, so that was Naruto being serious" told Sarutobi to a stunned Chunin "ANBU" cried the Sandaime, before four masked ninjas kneeled in front of him "I want for you to ensure nobody interferes with Naruto's fight" ordered the old kage before those ninjas disappeared

..

In the forest, Anko was in pain, she didn't think Orochimaru could still inflict her pain trough the cursed seal, but he just did, so now she was totally beaten and her old sensei was running to finish her off, but suddenly a new person got between both of them and a great wind sent him away "Naruto?" said a confused Anko "What are you doing here?" asked

"You are not ready to fight Orochimaru, As a Konoha ninja you should know that hate doesn't make you strong" scolded Naruto to the weakened Jounin "Now leave this to me" said with a smile on his face

When Anko was trying to leave, a bunch of snakes tried to get her "Who said I would allow this?" asked an angry Orochimaru. "Me" answered the blond, before shredding the snakes with pure wind manipulation

Orochimaru stared Naruto with a surprised look, he knew the blond was a Jounin and everybody spoke wonders about him, but between a Jounin and a sanin there was a big difference and the sanin completely underestimated the jinchuuriki "What a surprise…" said the snake sanin

"That red clouded black robe…tell me everything about Akatsuki" ordered Naruto, before Orochimaru charged toward him, the sanin drew his sword and tried to attack him, but the blond just lifted a hand and Orochimaru was thrown away for a powerful wind, while he was flying towards some trees, Naruto assaulted his opponent with a strong taijutsu

Orochimaru was able to replace himself with an earth clone, but he still took some hits, and they were quite hard "I thought you'd be more powerful by now Orochimaru-sempai" said Naruto in a mocking tone, the sanin was furious, he knew Sarutobi and Jiraiya were this boy's masters, but his power was unbelievable

The sanin quickly made some handseals before a lot of snakes came out of nowhere to bite Naruto, but the blond made a single tiger seal and exhaled a big fire breath turning the animals to ashes, Orochimaru made use of the distraction the snakes provided to stab his rival, but when the sword pierced his back, the whole body exploded in flames, taking him unaware and forcing him to use his special kawarimi, despite the great chakra cost, it was better to lose some chakra than lose the fight altogether

Orochimaru searched Naruto in the surrounding, he couldn't even feel his chakra, being as vast as it was, so when the blond came from the ground under his feet, he tried to slash him with the Kusanagi, but a black rod prevented it '_Does he also uses a bo staff?_' asked to himself the treacherous sanin

The sanin jumped away to avoid a kick from Naruto, then tried to elaborate a new plan, so he summoned a big boa to get a few seconds, and when he saw the snake eating his opponent he believed he got some time, but when said snake exploded and he heard a known sound coming from chakra rotation, he realized he was screwed

"Fuuton Rasengan" yelled Naruto before pushing the chakra sphere in Orochimaru's back

The technique wasn't flashy or too destructive, because he didn't add a lot of futon chakra, but he used the needed amount to destroy the target chakra network, so Orochimaru now on the floor, without the ability to mold chakra at all, permanently "What did you do?" yelled an angry and afraid Orochimaru, the man was desperate in this moments

"I messed your chakra network for good" answered Naruto looking to the snake sanin "You underestimated me, and that was fatal, I'm able to fight on equal terms with Jiraiya and Sarutobi so with the level you were showing you had no chance against me…and now you are going to tell us everything you know about Akatsuki" stated Naruto before taking Orochimaru to the ANBU that were around the forest

….

In the tower, the genin weren't able to see the battle, but they still felt some of it "Did you feel that?" asked an amazed Kiba who couldn't believe what his senses were telling him

"I'm quite sure that was Naruto-sensei" stated Shino just as impressed as Kiba

Hinata was speechless, the battle was too far for her Byakugan, but she could see some traces of the chakra used in the fight and it was an insane amount '_Who fought against our sensei to make him use all this power?_' wondered Hinata, a little worried about Naruto

…

Anko never thought she would be alive to see this, Orochimaru being carried to the Hokage tower by a group of ANBU, Naruto was following them, the blonde's clothes were some messy, but he was practically unharmed after beating the disloyal sanin

"Well, we met again Orochimaru" said Sarutobi, while Orochimaru kept his eyes on the ground, he was too prideful to admit he was beaten and now he was at the old man's mercy "I must say, congratulations are in order Naruto, it seems you took away his ability to mold chakra" stated the third getting a nod from the blond "Now I have to decide what to do with you" said Hiruzen to himself, twenty years ago he wasn't strong enough to kill him and that made him guilty for all the transgressions he did from that moment "Any word my old and ungrateful pupil?" asked the Sandaime to the sanin, who said nothing, his pride wouldn't let him ask for mercy

Sarutobi Hiruzen gathered his resolve, and decided death penalty for all his crimes, but he couldn't have someone else do the killing, Orochimaru was his mistake to fix, so he asked one of the ANBU for his sword and before striking, he drew a seal on Orochimaru's forehead, it was a typical ANBU seal to destroy the body after the ninja died, so when Sarubobi beheaded Orochimaru, his body started to glow, before evaporating and with an ANBU team, Naruto and Anko as witnesses of the sanin's death

Anko ran out of the room, while the Sandaime looked at Naruto and ordered the ANBU to leave "I'm ready to step down, so by the end of the Chunin exams, you will be known as the Godaime Hokage" stated the old man, who was in a weird mood, despite Orochimaru's treason he still had some fond memory of the student he had

"I know this must be hard for you, so I'll leave you alone and discus this later" said Naruto politely before giving his sensei an apologetic nod and get out of the room

Naruto got to the central tower in forest of death, Hayate was giving a speech about the true meaning of the chunin's exams, the blond saw there were just nine genin on the exams, his own team, a team from Sunagakure and another from Kirigakure

The third phase will take place thirty days from now, and Naruto was biting his tongue to not scream his promotion to everyone, he was quite happy now that he finally got what he wanted, but he had an image to keep

All the genin were led out of the forest for the proctors and their teachers meanwhile the ANBU teams got into the forest to rescue any other ninja, dead or alive, they could find. When team 8 got out of training field number 44, Naruto called them, so the three kids followed him

…

Naruto led them to his own house, the Yondaime's house, one of the safest places in the whole village, with thousands of seals and barriers to ensure the privacy and safety of the people on the inside "well guys, first of all, congratulations are in order, you were the only team from Konoha able to make it this far so I'm quite proud of all of you" said Naruto with a happy face, giving a hug to each one of his students

"Thanks for your words, we're also grateful to you, our success wouldn't be possible without your help" said Shino in one of the longest speech they ever heard coming from him

"Yeah Naruto-sensei you're awesome and we're just following your steps" added Kiba, with a bark from Akamaru who was probably supporting Kiba's sayings

"I really appreciate your words sensei…but I'm a little worried, what happened in the forest of death? We felt your chakra all over the place…and I've never seen that much chakra in a battlefield" asked Hinata with a concerned voice

"That a sensitive topic, so anything I say about it cannot leave this room" warned Naruto, getting affirmative nods from the genins "We don't know the reason yet, but Orochimaru appeared in the forest of death" said Naruto making the kids worry about the presence of an enemy that powerful "I was at Sarutobi-sensei's office when a Chunin came into the office saying Anko was facing Orochimaru, so I rushed into the forest because Anko never stood a chance against her master, when I found them, I saved Anko from an attack, we engaged in combat and Orochimaru underestimated me so I destroyed his chakra network for good" added Naruto leaving his students in awe "Finally the Sandaime sentenced him to death and killed Orochimaru right there" ended his tale letting his students to think about the whole thing

"What is the plan for this month?" asked Shino who was the most logical of the three, so even if he was impressed by Naruto's power, he could keep that thought in mind and speak about something else

"I have some options, but the final decision is up to you" started Naruto getting the attention of his students "We can train as usual, we can mix team training and individual training, or you can ask some family member for training in your respective clan's techniques and styles" offered the Jounin

The clan heirs talked to each other, but in the end the three of them picked the option number two, Naruto was their sensei so they were counting on him to show all the village their might

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Don't forget to give me your opinion about the story

See you guys in the third chapter


	3. Chapter 3

Hello guys, I wanted to say thanks to all the people that has followed, 'favorited' or replied the story, you are a really great motivation

If you think Orochimaru went down too easily, that was because I wanted to get him out of the way before edo tensei, that technique is unfair and the outcome is too predictable (sealing). I just hope you like this chapter (specially the fights)

About Naruto's love life, to the people that know my style, I try to keep it a secret as long as possible (You are welcome to play 'Guess who?')

I'm starting a new job so i have a LOT of work, but after some days, I hope things get normal again to write as usual

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**Chapter 3**

Naruto was training his team when Jiraiya appeared, he knew the old toad must be aware of some news so he left the kids with a shadow clone to talk with his godparent/sensei

"Hello Jiraiya" greeted Naruto when they were alone in the yard of his house

"Hi kiddo, I must say congratulations are in order" answered Jiraiya with a light hug, making Naruto smile, he knew the toad sage loved him a lot, he was a very important figure in his life and they had a very close relationship "We need to celebrate!" exclaimed Jiraiya proud of his godson

….

..

Sunagakure ninjas were a little confused, they were supposed to attack the leaf with Otogakure, but with Orochimaru's death nodoby was in charge of the ninjas from Oto and they had no way to know if the plan was still working or not

"Kazekage-sama we should forget the attack, I doubt we could win against Konoha without Orochimaru" said Yura, one of the ninja councilors

"You are a young fool" argued Chiyo, the old puppeteer "This is an one-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we could take Oto and attack using our forces combined" advised the old master of puppetry

The Yondaime Kazekage was thinking hard, they heard about Orochimaru's death and it's killer the new star from Konoha, Naruto Uzumaki, son of the Yondaime Hokage, the kid was obviously a powerful ninja, if Jiraiya was in the village for the exams, Konoha would have 3 S-rank ninjas and without Orochimaru he was the only with S-rank status in Suna, and while Gaara could face a powerful ninja, against one of these three his chances weren't that good, The old Chiyo was S-class but she was off-duty, she retired around ten years ago so he couldn't order her around but she was interested in this attack so maybe he could manipulate her to join forces for this

"Keep the ninjas on guard, I'm going to Oto!" said the Kazekage "I'll let you know my decision when I come back" stated the fourth wind shadow, making his people lower their heads before getting out of the room

This was an opportunity, he could wipe Konoha out of the map, or he could cripple Suna for good, with the recent actions of the wind daimiyo they were in a dire position, but this was a very big gamble

…

..

That morning was a slow one, Naruto had a very big hangover thanks to Jiraiya, so his team was doing some stealth training making as little noise as possible, in this moments Shino and Hinata were quite good at stealth, while Kiba was louder but not that much

The Inuzuka knew he and Hinata needed this ability more than Shino, while the Aburame could attack with his bugs from some distance, they were taijutsu specialists so they needed speed and stealth to get in strike-range

The next Hokage was very confident in his team's chances of promotion, the three of them were good fighters and had the potential to lead another ninjas, he gave them basics and foundations to the future and as long as they remembered them

Naruto was doing some training of his own in the free time, so he was quite happy with his own power, but he had some room to improve to ensure Konoha's safety for a really long time, his only concern was the talk he needed with Itachi, the Uchiha massacre was a mysterious topic and so was Akatsuki, the jinchuuriki needed all the capable fighters he could get

And with many things in motion, the month prior to the third phase of the Chunin exams finished and today was the great day, the day Konoha, Kiri and Suna would show his strength to the wealthiest people in the elemental continent

That day, Sarutobi greeted the Kazekage and the Mizukage, who went there to watch the performance of their ninjas "I'm surprised to see you here Yagura-dono" said the Yondaime Kazekage to the jinchuuriki from Kiri '_this is going to make things more difficult_' thought the Kazekage to himself

…

"Hello everybody, I know there is a lot of people who wants to see the best of the new generations of ninjas that Konoha, Kiri and Suna have to offer, but I'd like to make an announcement before that…Just like a little more than twenty years ago, I feel too old to face all the responsibilities with the Hokage's robes, so I'm stepping down and from this moment the Godaime Hokage is Uzumaki Naruto" stated Hiruzen with a happy face, Naruto appeared at his side after being named and people burst into applause, Naruto was a legend and all of them knew this would happen soon

Naruto took the main spot "As the new Hokage, I welcome all of you to our village, enjoy the matches and let the third and final phase of the Chunin's selection exams begin!" cried the Godaime, letting the fights begin

Genma Shiranui was the judge and announced the first match between Shino Aburame and Meizu from Kiri, one of the demon brothers, most ninjas heard of them because when the civil war started, they stood with Zabuza to try their luck with Yagura, now they were back in kiri, under Mei's tutelage and while their teamwork was superb, their individual combat skills could use some improves

The special Jounin started the match, getting out of the genin's way, Meizu knew the Aburame clan used insects to fight at long and medium range, so he run to Shino trying to turn that in a hand to hand combat, the clan heir avoided the poisoned claw, getting hit by that was an unnecessary risk so he avoided the first strike and then he saw the hidden chain coming from the inside of his hood and slashing his arm

Meizu thought he had some advantage, the poison would weaken his rival so he did some handseals "Kirigakure no jutsu" said before starting to condensate the water around into a dense mist, the ninja from Kiri was trying to make some time for the poison to make effect

"Lightning release: Bug-net" said Shino in a whisper in the middle of the mist, so when his opponent was trying to take him down, the insects around Shino formed an electrical perimeter, shocking the people that touch it, letting him stun Meizu long enough to absorb most of his chakra

After some minutes, the mist dissipated itself because his caster was unconscious, seeing this Genma declared Shino Aburame as the winner, getting the support from the crowd, the medics took the Kiri ninja and the second match was announced, now was the turn for Haku from Kiri against Kankurou of the sand

Both ninjas were facing his rival on the field, Kankurou had thought about forfeiting, but his father commanded him to fight if told to, they had to show good performances from Suna ninjas, "Hajime" cried Genma before getting out of the battlefield

None of the genin moved a muscle, both were giving hard glares to the other, so Haku was the first to move, he did some one-handed seals surprising everybody, even Kankurou "Hiding in Mist Technique" murmured very quietly, suddenly the field got full of a thick and cold mist, the spectators could even see some snow

Kankurou knew he had to do something, the trick with the puppet and hiding his real body wouldn't work if he couldn't see where did the attack came from to surprise his enemy with a counterattack, so he "released" his real body out of the bandages, Hake knew there were two figures inside his mist so started to throw his senbon needles

When the suna ninja felt the first batch of weapons, he crouched and knew he had to do something before he was taken down, so he made his puppet to exhale a poison cloud to protect him

Haku was aiming for his enemy, when he felt a little dizzy and realized he was being poisoned so he jumped out of the mist before throw some needles as cover for his retreat, when the Kiri ninja stepped out of the mist, the people was intrigued for the outcome of the match

Kiri's ninjas were able to feel or hear their opponents while they were inside the mist, but now this was a dangerous place for Haku, thanks to kankurou's poison so now the thick and cold mist was like a big shield for the suna ninja, the Kazekage has satisfied with his son's thinking because turning a weapon against its owner was the best way to win a fight "Don't underestimate me" said Haku in a monotone voice before doing more single-handed seals "Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death" and suddenly the mist dissipated because the Kiri ninja condensed the water and turned into ice, to have Kankurou completely surrounded "My aim may be off, but if I attack from everywhere at the same time, there is no way I'll miss" added before making the ice needles going for Kankurou who cursed his bad luck before taking a scroll and surround himself with a smoke cloud

When Haku was able to see his opponent again, there was a new puppet on his place, this puppet lifted its cloak showing a barrel-like structure protecting the puppeteer, before opening Black Ant threw some poisoned needles from its mouth

The Kiri ninja was quite fast so he didn't have much trouble dodging the needles, before doing more seals "Certain-Kill Ice Spears" and instantly ice spears raised from the floor impaling Kankurou's puppet, and forcing him to get out

The suna ninjas was in bad shape, he had bleeding holes on his right arm, left thigh and in the lower part of his abdomen, but he could still control a puppet with his left hand, he tried to use Crow to stab his opponent, but Haku made two ice mirrors, one behind him and the other behind Kankurou, he went inside the mirror behind him to avoid the puppet slash and got out from the mirror behind Kankurou, the people thought it was over when Haku came out of the mirror senbon in hand, ready to strike, but the kiri ninja shot his needles two meters at Kankurou's left before falling to the ground victim of the poison, surprising to the crowd for the unexpected outcome, Genma got closer to Haku and before he could declare Kankurou as the winner, said ninja fell to the floor too, making it a draw

The people in the stands cheered both ninjas, this was a great fight, Haku and Kankurou showed good techniques and the ability to take another strategy in the middle of the fight so both of them had chances of promotion

The next fight was between Kiba and Temari, both genin came to the field and faced each other "Aren't you worried about your little puppy to get hurt?" asked Temari in a mocking tone

Akamaru started marking angrily at the kunoichi, but Kiba patted his head "Don't worry Akamaru is going to show you its power" said Kiba surprisingly calm with Temari's provocation

"Hajime" said Genma in loud voice, before jumping away. Kiba quickly got his hands together with Akamaru on his back "Beast Human Clone" said before Akamaru transformed into a carbon copy of him

Temari wasted no time to swing her fan and throw a gust of wind to Kiba and his dog, but said warriors got on four "Four legs technique" said both at the same time, getting fast enough to dodge Temari's attack

Both Inuzukas started to run for both sides approaching Temari, who was trying to keep the distance with her fan, but the bestial ninjas were too fast and agile to get hit by the wind, Naruto was a better wind user than this girl so they were able to avoid these kinds of attacks

When the blonde saw one of her rivals get close to her, she tried to hit him with the fan, but the feral combatant took a step backwards and said "Earth Release: Earth Bullet" and from Kiba's mouth came many earth bullets, hitting Temari on his chest, hands and legs doing some light damage, then Temari felt a chakra nearby and saw the other Kiba exhaling a very big breath of fire coming at her

The blonde tried to run, but her hands were a little numb so she almost drops the fan, the kunoichi was trying to find a way to attack him, this kid and his dog were too damn fast and her long range attacks were useless, but if she tried to fight at close range, he was going to overpower her easily, he was a good fighter

"Is that akamaru exhaling fire?" asked a very surprised Tsume Inuzuka, who couldn't believe his son was using an elemental jutsu while his dog was doing another

"It seem Naruto really has a knack for elemental ninjutsu" said Hana, Kiba's sister next to her

Naruto's elemental proficiency was well known in the village, but being able to teach lightning jutsus to an Aburame, and even fire jutsus to a young Inuzuka dog was something else

Temari tried to compose herself, she leaped away from the boys and molded her chakra for another jutsu "Wind Release: Great Task of the Dragon" exclaimed the Kunoichi making a tornado between both ninjas, Kiba was fast enough to get away, but Akamaru wasn't so in that moment the Inuzuka came up with a plan and jumped inside the tornado surprising everyone on the stands

The girl thought Kiba was mad, but then from the tornado came a very big flame, a big spinning flame, and after that came a lot, a really big lot of earth bullets hitting her and the field many times, before the flames ignited this earth that resulted a very good combustible

Temari got caught by the flames and her biggest problem was being surrounded for more flames, forcing her to give up, Genma hurried the medics who came to help Temari, while Kiba and Akamaru used their Fang Passing Fang to get out of the tornado and not being hurt by the rotation

After the kazekage's daughter was taken from the field on a stretcher, Genma declared Kiba as the winner before letting all the people to congratulate him

Naruto was on the VIP box with the other kages, he was very proud of his students, Shino and Kiba had fought very well, and they showed power and intelligence so he would be able to promote them without any complain

Finally the last match of the first round was about to start, it was between Hinata Hyuga and Gaara no Sabaku, even Naruto was a little worried, suna's jinchuuriki was a unstable sociopath with no remorse whatsoever and despite Hinata's abilities, she was no match against an enemy that powerful

Hinata activated her Byakugan while Gaara looked bored, he was underestimating the cute girl in front of him, but Hinata was used to be assumed as a weak ninja, the Hyuga heiress jumped and got in front of Gaara, trying to attack him using her Juuken strikes, Hinata was showing a great ability in the Hyuga style, but even with that, Gaara's automatic defense was too much for her

The jinchuuriki didn't even need to command his sand to block Hinata's palm, and after some minutes of this unproductive fight Gaara tried to grab Hinata with his sand, failing due to the kunoichi's speed

Hinata realized Juuken would take her nowhere, so she opted for the next thing she could do "Water Release: Gunshot" said Hinata, before shooting many water spheres with her mouth, Gaara just saw the jutsu get blocked by his automatic defense

Most people thought Hinata was just delaying the inevitable, but the Hyuga and some others ninjas saw something, usually Gaara's sand was fast and blocked the attacks to get back in the gourd but after blocking Hinata's water jutsu, the sand started to fall to the ground

"Water Release: Large Projectile" said Hinata this time, attacking Gaara with a very big blast of water from her mouth, and just like previous times, the automatic defense stood in place…at first, but after some seconds the sand got wet and fell to the floor, leaving Gaara exposed to the water stream

The suna siblings and the Kazekage were quite surprised, Suiton users were very uncommon in Suna so Gaara had never got hit by a water jutsu, and this was the first time someone pierced his automatic defense

Even Gaara was confused, his mother was supposed to protect him as long as he gave her the sacrifices she demanded, and this little and fragile girl was able to hit him for real, now he was past mad and his eyes were murderous so he went to attack Hinata controlling his sand with his hands, but he realized he had very little dry sand, and the wet one was slow and sloppy

Fortunately he could make sand from normal earth and despite not being in the desert, Konoha's battle field had many minerals so he could transform it to sand, Hinata was dodging all the sand attacks, but she could see clearly that Gaara didn't have so much sand now. Gathering some resolve, Hinata decided to fight head on and leaped to Gaara's side trying to capitalize his current state, but event without so much sand, the redhead was still able to block Juuken strikes, so she tried with water ninjutsu again "Water Release: Eight trigrams defense" and a ying-yang seal was visible on the floor before a little mass of water was visible at Hinata's feet

Gaara tried to attack her, but a water whip blocked and wetted the sand rendering it useless, Hinata used the Juuken again, but this time the water whips were attacking too, so the jinchuuriki was hit on his chakra network and a lot of water whips cracking his sand armor and throwing him away

The Hyuga heiress gathered most of his remaining chakra to say "Water Release: Rising Water Slicer" and then a jet of water sliced through the field reaching the prone form of Gaara, who took a good hit

The people was cheering and supporting Hinata, so far her fight had been excellent, she analyzed her enemy and then tried a way of dealing with his defenses, but when the people on the stands was clapping, a weird voice was heard "Blood…!" Gaara exclaimed very loudly, "My blood!" cried again, before starting muttering something

Most seasoned ninjas felt the chakra spike before another being spoke **"I'll kill you"** said a half possessed Gaara, throwing a sand-made arm to Hinata, this was so fast that the girl wasn't able to react, the water technique used some whips to stop this attack, but this time the chakra was more powerful and the water was passed trough

….

Naruto was about to jump, when Genma got in the way and neutered Gaara's attack "Kazekage take care of your jinchuuriki or I'll do it, permanently!" said Naruto with a harsh tone surprising to Sarutobi and Yagura who were used to the happy and calm Naruto

The Yondaime Kazekage looked at the blond eyes, seeing his resolve "Ok, I'll take care of him" the wind shadow said, before taking some space and doing some hand-seals, but instead of bind Gaara or subduing him, a big blast of gold sand appeared and adopted an arrow-like shape on the sky, in that precise moment, everything changed and Suna ninjas started attacking Konoha, its ninjas and citizens

"Kazekage, what is the meaning of this?" asked a confused Sarutobi who wasn't expecting something like this

"Just what it seems, we're wiping Konoha from the map" said the Yondaime Kazekage before gathering all his golden sand around him to fight, Meanwhile Naruto was watching his village, his first concern was Hinata who was facing Suna's jinchuuriki with Genma, the people on the stands who were being attacked while his ninjas tried to protect them

Before Sarutobi could answer, Naruto faced Gaara's father "I'll only say this, stop this now and your life will be the only lost this day" warned Naruto before dodging a sand attack from the Kazekage

"You don't even know what you are fighting against" replied the Kage from Suna, who had planned a very solid attack

Naruto did some communication seals common between ANBU before a masked man appeared at his side "Orders sir?" asked this ninja "Kill every ninja with a Suna Headband" ordered the new Hokage, surprising Sarutobi and then many ANBU ninja came out of nowhere fighting for Konoha

"What was that Naruto?" asked the Sandaime Hokage who didn't know this ninjas. "That is Danzo's Root" said Naruto before putting his eyes on the Kazekage

"What can I do Naruto?" asked Yagura offering his help "Take care of Gaara, but try to not kill him" answered Naruto before taking his kage robe off, showing a monk-like attire, his arms and shoulders were covered by a red leather, his torso was naked showing his muscles and from the waist to the feet there were loose white pants with a scarf-like red belt showing the Hi no kuni emblem

Sarutobi knew that the Kazekage was Naruto's enemy, so he tried to help to the people on the stands, the blond Godaime exhaled a very big fireball to his enemy, who blocked it with his sand, Naruto used the sand as a cover to move and then did some hand-seals "Lightning release: Chidori Sharp Spear" said Naruto before shooting an electric spear to the Kazekage who avoid it quickly

The Kazekage was an experienced fighter, and his mastery with the gold-dust was superb, he was able to mold little surfaces to avoid hits, to jump in midair or to change his direction while running, so despite not having a body that fast, he was quite agile

He tried to grab Naruto's feet with some sand, but the jinchuuriki jumped with a blast of wind from his foot and started firing a lot of wind blades, the Hokage was known for his powerful wind mastery so he had to jump away very fast to avoid those attacks, he didn't know if he would be able to block one of his wind techniques

Naruto knew he was more powerful than the Kazekage, but he was tempted to leaving alone and help in the village, but doing this the other kage could kill anyone, he took some seconds to look around, aside from Gaara the most dangerous ninja was another puppeteer, an old woman named Chiyo who was facing Kabuto and a root ANBU, suddenly something caught his eye, it was a white bird and it was carrying two ninjas, two ninjas wearing Akatsuki symbols, then they were attacked by a water blast coming from Jiraiya '_damn…I wanted to fight against them_' thought the new Hokage before chasing his enemy

….

…

The Kazekage reached what looked as a public park, it had some grass and seats, but suddenly everything was on fire, he looked and saw Naruto behind him, and then he realized his frightening ability, the blond could use practically any elemental ninjutsu with an enormous power behind

Naruto did a single tiger seal and the fire around the Kazekage seemed to be alive because it took the form of two dragons and chased the Kazekage with their jaws, the sand ninja used his sand to fly some meters on the sky to get away, but Naruto released the fire and begun shooting lightning bolts to the other Kage, who was amazed at Naruto's elemental proficiency, but none of the bolts landed because of his magnetic release, it allowed him to divert these electrical attacks

When the blond fired another bolt, the Kazekage made his move, he wanted to get away from the stadium to make more sand, here in the open he could gather minerals from earth to get more sand, he made some kind of golden golem around him and then he started to attack Naruto

The blond avoided the hits while he was looking for a weakness in this jutsu, the construct was huge and he didn't want to drestroy his own village throwing elemental jutsus all over the place, after moving around the golem dodging the hits he realized where to strike

Naruto did four clones and put them in cardinal points around his enemy, the Kazekage tried to hit one of them, but Naruto did a water blade to cut off the whole arm before it reached the clone

"Fire release: blaze inferno" said the original, while the four clones exhaled a huge fire blast, surrounding completely the giant golem

Naruto saw the creature move around to get away, but the fire was too intense, when he tried to hit the clones, the original cut some appendix off and the four of them melted the whole thing, forcing the Kazekage to take the construct down, he couldn't breathe inside the thing

And that wasn't the worst part, when the suna kage was jumping from the golem he missed a shuriken-like chakra construct "Wind Release: Rasen Shuriken" said Naruto at the moment his jutsu exploded, hitting the Kazekage with thousands of micro needles, completely destroying his chakra network and not just the core as with Orochimaru, said opponent fell to the ground and couldn't get up

….

..

In the center of the village Jiraiya was facing two Akatsuki ninja, one of them was unforgettable, Sasori of the red sands, the guys earned himself a name with his puppet mastery "This is not going to be easy" said the loyal sanin looking at his rivals, while the sanin was thinking how to reach them, another white bird was visible, but over it was a masked ninja who made appear two more birds, which flied to the Akatsuki guys before exploding, forcing them to go down

'_That must be one of the root ANBU he told me the other night_' thought Jiraiya looking at the weird but useful support ninja that came to help him "Well guys I have to show you why you can't mess with Konoha" said Jiraiya assuming a battle stance

Jiraiya knew Sasori was a puppeteer, and this was a powerful armor-like puppet, he heard of something like this from Tsunade in the last war, so he knew he had to take the puppeteer out, while keeping an eye on the other kid "Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique" said Jiraiya after doing some quick seals, making a great fire-dragon that made the Akatsuki ninjas scatter

The sanin rushed to the puppeteer, who wasn't expecting this speed from and old man, the sand ninja tried to hit Jiraiya with his tail, but he was able to get away and hit him from behind "Rasengan" cried Jiraiya, making Haruko explode in many splinters

Jiraiya was surprised to see Sasori so young, but being Orochimaru's partner he knew forbidden techniques allowed to preserve the youth, he just had to find how this jutsu worked, but just then some white insects flied to him, Jiraiya of course knew insects weren't white so he realized there was a trap, before said animals exploded practically on his face "Katsu!" exclaimed Deidara

'_good thing I had the Needle Jizō ready just in case_' thought Jiraiya hiding from the Akatsuki ninjas

"If Orochimaru is that weak as that old guy, getting the ring back is going to be a walk in the park...yeah" said a confident Deidara, who was looking at his explosion

"Don't be a fool, that is nothing for a ninja like Jiraiya…you really know nothing…not even art" replied Sasori, warning him of the still present danger, Sai took that moment to attack and many ink-lions were falling in their direction, Sasori knew if the birds were any indication, this animals were made of explosive ink too, so they tried to avoid them and get closer to the masked ninja

The problem with that was none of them realized Jiraiya was hiding in Sasori's shadow, so the moment the puppeteer put his eyes on Sai, the sanin came out with his technique ready "Odama Rasengan" shouted, before hitting his enemy full force

After dying Sasori's body turned to be a not-known Konoha ninja '_this must be some kind of manipulation or duplication technique_' analyzed Jiraiya

When Sasori was killed Deidara got serious and took from his pouch a bigger piece of clay and after throwing some small bombs, he got the C3 ready "hahahaha stupid old man we're paid to cause as much destruction as possible and this is going to take care of the job" shouted Deidara before dropping the white bomb

Fortunately Jiraiya realized this guy wasn't very good in history or he wouldn't leave his special attack that vulnerable, the sanin quickly summoned the toad belly around the bomb and sealed it away, before Sai in a very stealthy move stabbed the guy in the very hearth, the Iwa ninja shouted a little before dying and becoming a dead Konoha ninja

"Thanks for your help kid" Said Jiraiya loudly before looking at the village, fortunately this two didn't make any mess in the village, but they drove him away from the Suna ninjas

….

..

In the center of the village Kabuto and a Nara ANBU guy were fighting against Chiyo, so far the medic faced the old puppeteer while the masked ANBU provided the ranged support, even when the woman landed some cut or stab, Kabuto took the wounded tissue with his scalpels and regenerated the place, it was very frustrating for her and just then she realized after so many years off from the battle fields, maybe there was some truth about that saying about the new generations

This was a young guy, no older than twenty five and yet, he was giving her as much problems as Tsunade at forty

The fight wasn't flashy or anything, but any misstep and the responsible would die, Chiyo was saving her ace just in case any powerful ninja got into the fight, but then, all the fighters were surprised when a barrel-like puppet came out of nowhere taking the old Chiyo inside before vanishing in a poof of smoke

….

..

An angry Naruto got into the stone head of his father, a place with an excellent sight of the whole village, but now he was looking to the damage the invasion made, while holding the Kazekage from his neck

Some ninjas took notice of this for the amazing amount of chakra Naruto was flaring, making most of the fights stop for some moments "Tell your people to give up" ordered Naruto to the weak and powerless kage "never" spat the wounded and destroyed ninja from the desert

Most suna ninjas didn't think any Hokage would be able to murder a defenseless person, but when facing a war inside the village, the Hokages made anything to save their village, even if that means sacrificing your life or setting an example "Ninjas from Suna, this is what happens to any who dares to hurt Konoha" said the blond before stabbing the Kazekage's heart with a lightning blade that went through him completely

In that moment, almost all ninjas from suna lost their fighting spirit and were quickly dealt by ANBU and Konoha's forces as a whole, showing to them and the world, why they had emerged victorious from the previous wars

In the end, Konoha withstood the attack, they lost around eight hunder ninja, while suna lost almost three thousand, including his kage and his jinchuuriki, because Naruto asked Yagura to keep him prisoner in Kiri, he didn't want to kill a fellow jinchuuriki, but he needed to be punished and Kiri's moisture would take some of his power away

The Hidden Sand Village was demoted from the great five ninja countries, said village was economically weak with the daimiyo's decisions, but this was a fatal blow, if it weren't for the desert they would have been invaded now, but that meant to lose too much time and resources

Konoha showed its power to the world, while Naruto had a praised performance in that conflict, even the feudal lord congratulated him and wished him a good future for him and the village

Naruto thought about asking to Jiraiya to bring Tsunade back, after the invasion there were a lot of poisoned people, but Kabuto was a very capable medic and was able to find antidotes for most of poisons, letting the doctors duplicate them and heal most of the wounded people

….

..

"Naruto, I'm quite proud of you" said Jiraiya to the young Hokage "You defeated another Kage without even using sage mode" added to explain his first argument

"Well, the old man said many times" remembered Naruto from his time under the Sandaime teachings "Raw power doesn't win so much as a keen mind" cited the lesson "He couldn't make gold dust from Konoha's ground, the sand he made wasn't so strong, but even considering that, the golden golem was though, my attacks didn't have enough power to bring it down, so after I took some time to look I realized he had no place to breath so I forced him to get away combusting all the oxygen around and then a shadow clone I did some time ago hit him with a full powered rasen shuriken" explained Naruto his thinking during the combat

The sanin was smiling proud of his godson "Did the people from Kiri said something?" asked Jiraiya

"Yagura actually thanked me, he said that using the Sanbi to protect an ally would probably be good for his image" answered Naruto surprised for the outcome of that "His help was very much appreciated, he dealt with the Ichibi extremely well, that just proves he's not a kage for nothing" added praising Yagura's style


	4. Chapter 4

_**Hi everybody, first of all, thank you for the feedback you motivate me to write.**_

_**As I told you last time, I'm working in a new place so i have to work at home to get everything done, so I'll probably write a chapter per week (on weekends)**_

_**Some people said Suna got off the hook too easily, but they lost their main weapon to Kiri and a siege in the desert is not an easy thing, so Naruto being the smart man he was decided to not push further**_

_**I hope you like this chaper and please comment your thoughts **_

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Naruto was a happy man, his village withstood the attack from Suna and Akatsuki, despite these last guys being just bad copies, the blond Hokage was praised for his fight and preparations, because the Root ANBU was the key to the safety of civilians and young genins

Now, he was on the ninja academy for the Chunin exams results, this time there were four promoted ninjas, Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka and Kabuto Yakushi

Some other genin weren't so much happy, the second phase of the exams had been particularly hard and despite beating their opponents, neither team 7, 9 or 10 could find the right scroll

Sarutobi and the elders were surprised to see Kabuto finally promoted, the talented medic got a field promotion thanks to his fight against Chiyo and his efforts to heal the poisoned people after Suna's attack

Right now, Jiraiya was the only non-root person that knew the secret behind Kabuto, after killing Danzou, Naruto got most of root's secrets so Kabuto's true identity and his affiliation with Orochimaru came to his knowledge, after beating said sanin he had a long talk to the skilled medic-nin who ended confessing his interest of learning the truth about the world and making a name for himself, Naruto being the smart ninja he was, showed some of his wisdom and chakra abilities to offer him a place in Konoha

The Godaime Hokage was proud of his students, the three of them showed great potential and earned their jackets, and the other ninja greeted them and encouraged the other genins to train for the next exams in six months

…

Team 8 was walking through the streets of Konoha when suddenly Sasuke appeared on their way with a hard glare "I want to see how strong you are, fight me!" demanded Sasuke

Naruto's students looked to each other, they didn't know who was Sasuke talking to, but Shino was the one to reply "Uchiha-san that would be unwise so I must ask to get out of our way" said coldly to the praised Uchiha genius

Sasuke was very angry, but realized he wasn't getting the fight he wanted so he got away, the Uchiha was frustrated, this exams were his chance to prove his worthy, his chance to measure himself against the best of the best, but in the end he just fought some weak Kusa ninjas, killing two of them before leaving the third member after she gave them her scroll

The Uchiha realized he was a good fighter, but he needed another ability, even Itachi had a second specialization, assassination and stealth were his main abilities, while he was a proficient fighter and nothing else, he could become a tracking specialist like Kakashi, kenjutsu expert like some proctors or even taijutsu master like that weird Jounin with giant eyebrows

…

Neji was feeling something similar, he was furious, fate had established he was the best genin konoha had to offer, but even with that fact he didn't even made it into the finals

With the war events, he could vent some of his anger, he attacked as much Suna ninjas as he could, the killing never seemed so easy, it was just got in the middle of a team and using his Byakugan-guided strikes to deliver killing blows everywhere

Tenten asked him if he was feeling well, she seemed a lot guilty with killing so many enemies in so little time, but to him that wasn't a problem, if fate had decided this would be their last day, they would die anyway, some could say it wasn't Neji killing them it was fate saying they had to die today

Lee was the same as always, he did some insane training methods to improve for the next Chunin exams that Gai said they would be entering for sure

….

..

Naruto realized the genins were on different power levels, so he ordered to the jounins to do some group training and sparring to make them see the differences and improve enough to get up to the task, Sarutobi had suggested use his own students to teach other, but they were equals some months ago so there could be some hard feelings with that

A week after the exams, things were kind of normal, a new hokage in the office, but the daimiyo and the Jounin had accepted him so things were working as usual "Do we have a mission?" asked Hinata to his ex-sensei who had called his team

"Do you think you got rid of me?" asked the new hokage grinning "Your first test was beating one of my shadow clones as a team, now you'll have to train to beat them individually" stated Naruto before making said shadow clone "Follow me" ordered the bunshin before leaving the office with the newly promoted Chunin

Naruto was reading some documents, things were good for Konoha, their loses were minimal and they showed great strength to the world, with ROOT on his command he had more power than Sarutobi, this black-ops branch was ruthless and highly effective, their success rate was over 96% and their numbers were quite good, he knew he couldn't train more root ninjas, because Danzou's methods were inhuman, but he wasn't going to waste so many capable ninjas able to do the least pleasant duties

The blond godaime knew he had an unfinished business; he needed to talk with Itachi and damn he wanted to fight the Akatsuki ninjas, but those things had to wait, now Konoha was his main concern and he was going to protect it whatever it took

…

"Do you think that was wise?" asked Kakuzu to the leader, and wielder of the rinnegan know as Pain "We had a reputation of success" added to explain his point

"It was a necessary cost" answered Pain "Suna doen't have the money to hire our services anymore and our move wasn't too flashy to be known for many people outside Konoha" added the leader to easy Kakuzu's worries "It was a tactical move, now Konoha's ninjas will underestimate us and in due time we'll take the Kyubi" said concluding his argument

The other Akatsuki ninja listened the whole conversation and while usually Pain didn't let anyone to argue about his orders, Kakuzu was the group's found collector so he had a say in business related topics "Our orders are to keep getting money and power and staying out of the great shinobi village's sight" ordered Pain to the group before disappearing

All the holographic images vanished too, Itachi's mind returned to his body next to Kisame, the Uchiha prodigy heard some news about Konoha, they did a very good job dealing with Suna attack and Naruto, his best friend was the new Hokage '_Who knows how strong he is now_' thought the missing-nin

"What's on your mind Itachi?" asked Kisame gathering his giant sword before standing

"I'm thinking about what Kakuzu said" answered Itachi "Suna and Iwa were our biggest employers after all" added keeping a monotone face

"Don't worry, there's always some people in need of a good soldier…we'll have plenty of lives to take" assured the Kiri missing-nin before going to the next village

'_I know Naruto better than you Pain…he'll never buy the crap with the special cloning technique…I just wonder what'll be his next step_' thought Itachi as he went with Kisame '_Maybe he'll find a way to deal with Pain and Madara_' hoped Itachi because he didn't know how to take Madara down

…

Sasuke was struggling to get on his feet, he was fighting against Neji, both were the rookies of the year from their respective class, and despite both being good fighters, the Hyuga was beating the Uchiha

Neji hit some of Sasuke's chakra points taking away his ability to mold chakra during the fight, Kakashi knew Sasuke was probably stronger, but the Hyuga's technique was more effective, while Sasuke landed some hits at the beginning of the fight, to Neji it just took three hits and Sasuke was on the floor

Gai stopped the match when Sasuke fell again, the next match was between Chouji and Lee

Kakashi and Asuma were aware of Lee insane ability for physical combat, but Chouji had a chance with his clan's ninjutsu the speed was the key factor, when Gai said hajime, Lee quickly used the Konoha Senpu on his opponent, but the Akimichi used his meat-tank technique to block the hit, Lee had some difficulties now, in the spherical shape Chouji was now, he was very hard to hit and he just kept rolling with the intention to crush his enemy

Lee tried many moves, but all of them were ineffective, that match wasn't that exiting, but it was a smart one, Lee had a great physical advantage but Chouji used a strategy to nullify that advantage, the problem was he wasn't able to attack his opponent, the meat-tank mode was safer, but also slower

In the end, after twenty minutes the Akimichi had to stop his technique, he was too dizzy to go on, but used his partial body expansion to try to grab Lee, so the spandex-wearing shinobi used this chance to get behind Chouji and knock him with a hard chop

The result of the fight was the expected, but the importance of this fight was that most of the genin realized a good tactic was enough to even the odds in a fight; a sharp mind was deadlier than a big muscle

After some joint trainings, teams seven, nine and ten were facing the Hokage "it's good to see you all" greeted Naruto to the group "The mission is to build a defensive tower in the frontier with the wind country, we aren't expecting another attack but the place is quite unstable and many bandits or renegades could try to attack the closer towns so with this tower it'll be easier to protect the place" explained Naruto telling the situation to the genin, it was time they started to think about the effects of conflicts

The three teams were led by Kakashi, while any Jounin could order the genins in case Kakashi was busy with something, after handling the copy ninja the scrolls, the Hokage sent them away

The young ninjas were exited to go out of the village, after the invasion, the village had restricted the gates to avoid foreign shinobi enter to Konoha, Kakashi was a little disappointed from his team, Sasuke was the only trying to excel while Sakura stayed as a fan girl and Kuro Akado was mediocre ninja who tends to run from tough situations, maybe they shouldn't have passed the bell test

Asuma on the contrary was happy, Ino realized how behind they were compared to Hinata, and was training to catch up, Shikamaru realized that being a mediocre ninja could mean being unable to protect those close to you so he took his training more seriously with Chouji who always tried to keep with their teammates

Gai was…well Gai, he didn't change very much, his student's power of youth was off the charts, but they were unlucky on this exams, things like this could happen so there was only a matter of time before they got field-promoted or the next exams could lead them to their deserved rank

After two days they arrived to their destiny, on the way here they saw what Naruto meant, the last village had been attacked some days ago for some missing ninja from Suna who got away before the border patrols could catch them, they had a week to build the tower before a ninja team came to protect the border with it so there was a lot of work to do

Kakashi put Asuma and Gai to watch for enemy threats while the genin got the tower built under the guidance of some stonemasons and architects, the tower would be fifty meters high with many weapons and defenses so they had to work as a team to get the thing done on time

Some of the genin like Sasuke or Neji thought they were overqualified for this job, while others like Tenten, Lee, Chouji and Kuro were working with enthusiasm and cooperation, this was precisely what Kakashi was looking for

When they had to harden the stones on the front, Sasuke glad used his katon jutsus to do most of the work, and Neji took a key role to place the weapons in the most useful angles and positions to take down enemies coming from the other side of the border

In the week they were there, the genin didn't see any fight, but Asuma and Gai had to deal with many wanderers and low profile criminals, nothing worth mentioning but they had to work too

…..

..

In Kirigakure, things were getting better for Yagura, the jinchuuriki had a great performance in Konoha, showing power and control to subdue Gaara of the sand, so he earned some people admiration, the bloody mist would never be forgotten but now the people wasn't blaming Yagura for it

From Kiri, the only genin promoted was Yuki Haku, who showed great potential and a deadly keke genkai, this was another way to support the bloodline wielders to assure them the old tendencies were in the past and now they would be praised for their work

His sensei, Mei was very happy, so she gathered many jounins with their teams to celebrate, she was a very happy person, some time ago she was leading the rebels, but now things were looking better and Kiri had avoided bloodshed…thanks to certain man

Yagura knew it would be more difficult to discuss about Akatsuki now that Naruto was the Hokage because he couldn't leave the office so easily, so he thought about sharing that information with someone else to act as a messenger between both of them '_maybe I could form a team to deal with this threat_' thought after consider taking an active role

….

Sarutobi was happy, finally he could enjoy his lasts days, he knew he had some years before dying, but for the first time in his life, he felt satisfied, he left Konoha in very capable hands and got rid of Orochimaru for good, fixing the mistake he did so many years ago

The Sandaime Hokage had been a legend, but now he was a happy civilian who spent most of his time resting, smoking and telling stories to his grandson

Hiruzen thought about his own masters a lot, Hashirama's and Tobirama's words came to him a lot lately, but all their teaching had been passed down to Naruto, he was a good man, he had a good hearth, but was brave enough to take the hard decisions for the greater good and he was very skilled in ninja arts and with people, he was a light source, he got himself a name, to people to follow and for his enemies to fear and he always seemed in control

When he found that Naruto was in command of root he realized his students were right, even Jiraiya had recommended to deal with Danzou and his minions, but he was too soft to see it, the old war hawk could have supported a lot of conflicts with his personal army, but instead he was too busy with his plans and secret stuff, but Naruto used his troops to protect Konoha and he would keep doing it

Naruto was a man that would stop at nothing to get what he wanted and fortunately that was the prosperity of Konoha and its people, he carried the will of fire and was a rising star. He had a lot of faith in him

Jiraiya had assured him Naruto never used sage mode against the Kazekage, when confronted the blond said his brain was enough to beat his opponent, and in that moment Hiruzen felt like many years ago, in this moment he was completely convinced Naruto was the strongest ninja in the whole village. He knew Jiraiya became at least two or three times more powerful in sage mode so his successor had a vast power, much like his own masters Hashirama and Tobirama

….

..

Onoki was curious, he wanted to know some of Naruto's abilities, there were a lot of rumors, but those were too vague, he supposed the blond Hokage was a ninjutsu specialist but nothing else, he didn't even know his elemental affinity

"Kitsuchi I want for you to double the border patrol with the land of fire and wind" asked the Tsuchikage getting an affirmative nod from the big man "And if you get any information about this new Hokage, let me know it" added before doing some other task

Just like their lands, people from earth country were hard and tough, they used to keep their traditions and grudges, but while many people hated Minato, Onoki just used him to avoid the questioning to his abilities, so instead of blaming the Tsuchikage for the defeat, they hated and cursed the yellow flash

One of the things that Onoki used to do was try to assassinate potential threats, even hiring Akatsuki for this, but it seemed that even the criminal group feared Konoha's might, so that wasn't an option this time "It seems training a new pupil would be wise" said after some thinking

…

In Kumo, the news from Konoha didn't make so much noise; they accepted the leaf as their equal after the last war and despite A's frustration about Minato being faster than him, he was curious about his son, he should be a strong ninja to beat Orochimaru and the Kazekage but some ninja, even S-rank were just second rate so until he was able to fight him personally, he would stay curious

"Aren't you planning something in response to Konoha?" asked Mabui very concerned about A's actions

"I know about their good relationship with Kiri…and the poor state of Suna, but we can't really do something before they so for now we just wait and observe" answered A, he knew Konoha prevented most of the civil war in Kiri so they kept at least three quarters of their ranks so he couldn't underestimate them, while Konoha seemed to be as strong as always so facing both of them was a foolish move

….

..

Naruto was sweating and breathing hard, some toads were looking at him in awe, the blond was quite young and despite that, he was so strong it was almost frightening

"Naruto-chan your abilities are amazing…it's like if you understood the very nature of chakra" commented Fukasaku who was paying a lot of attention to Naruto's training. The blond used to train in Myoboku because he could unleash most of his power without being felt or spied for anyone, the only person able to go there was Jiraiya and the pervert sanin didn't visit very often so it was the ideal place and if some kind of emergency happened in Konoha while he was away, there was a toad in his office to summon him, or his dad's bodyguards could teleport him

Jiraiya and Sarutobi asked Naruto some time ago about learning the Hirashin no jutsu, but the jinchuuriki always had the same answer, he had a different style than his father, and despite being decent at fuuinjutsu he was nowhere his parent's level, but no one of them had the mastery of elemental ninjutsu Naruto had, they were different people with different styles

"I'm trying to develop a new technique while in sage mode, but I have to work some details" shared Naruto with the old toad "You know it improves most of my original abilities, but this is something that will require some work" added before trying to prepare his elemental manipulation for said technique he was developing

….

..

The days were peaceful for Konoha, Naruto was in his third month as Godaime Hokage and things were looking good for Konoha, many people came to ask them mission for Naruto's fame and popularity

This was one of the cases where some person came a long way to hire his ninjas "As I was saying, we were living peacefully, but some months ago some weird ninja started attacking the city and their people, they rob anyone trying to enter and don't let people going out" explained the troubled man who was a victim of what seemed wanderers ninjas, but when people said a ninja was weird or creepy it usually meant he had some kind of hidden ability, and that was a problem

"Well mister Itako I just have the right team for you" answered Naruto smiling to the man, this was a great chance, this man said there were around eight of these ninjas in their city so he was going to send two teams, after asking some ANBU to bring some people, the teams came to the office "Well mister Itako, this is team ten, with the famous Asuma Sarutobi in charge, and team 8 is mine so I'll have a Chunin in my place, so you will have an excellent Jounin, six clan heirs, three of them being Chunin and a very capable combat medic that is also a Chunin, is that satisfactory?" asked Naruto getting the man nod and gratitude

"Well guys, Mr Itoko here lives to the south of the rice field country and his city has being attacked for some weird ninja, he reports hearing about 8 ninjas in total so all of you are going with him to deal with them and make the city safe again, this mission is B-rank and Asuma in on charge, but you must follow ranks here" explained the Hokage to his ninjas, who nodded and went to prepare their packs for the travel

….

..

The whole group was travelling to the west, Asuma sometimes carried the client to go faster, but all of them stopped to rest every four hours, they had been on their way for three days and were about to arrive to their destiny when Hinata stopped them "There is something off here" said Hinata looking with her Byakugan and seeing too much chakra around that part of the forest "Arrows!" exclaimed the Hyuga heiress before assuming her stance to deflect the projectiles coming at her, all of the ninjas were able to dodge the attack, even Asuma who was carrying the client

"Can you find the ninja shooting these arrows?" asked the Jounin leaving the man in Ino's care to pay more attention to the surroundings

"He's barely out of my reach" answered Hinata a little confused about this guy, he clearly must know about the Byakugan to fight this way, it was a common tactic between long range fighters to stay some distance away shooting some attacks

"Give me a moment…stay on guard" said Shino before letting some of his insects fly from his sleeves, the bugs were making a perimeter around, when Hinata said "Attack!" and the whole team evaded another set of arrows, but this time Asuma took a kunai and threw it to some trees

"It landed" said Hinata before running to the enemy followed by Asuma and his other teammates, leaving Kabuto and team ten to protect the client

Asuma paid attention to the first attack, the direction it came from and the direction of the second, so he assumed their opponent was moving to their right and after attacking he had to move and he just anticipated his movement with a wind-chakra reinforced kunai, that pierced through his shoulder, Hinata was the first to face him and quickly shoot a big water projectile, the mysterious shinobi used an golden spear-like weapon to stab the attack and make it lose its pressure, Asuma then tried to hit him from his back, but he used the golden weapon to block, before being caught for Hinata's water prison "Good work Hinata" said Asuma, encouraging the Chunin performance

But when the Konoha ninja thought they had trapped him, Kidomaru activaded the level two of the cursed seal, releasing a great amount of chakra that made Hinata's control over water fail, free from the water prison the ex-sound nin shooted some more arrows to his enemies, who were so close that were forced to jump backwards, then he summoned a giant spider, Asuma remembered Kiba's performance in the Chunin exams so he shouted "Kiba, make some fire"

The Chunin looked to his dog and after the man beast clone, Akamaru exhaled a wide fire attack "Wind release: Gale palm" said Asuma doing a collaboration attack that took Kidomaru in surprise, he was too close to the source of the attack so he used all his chakra to harden his golden armor in hope to withstand that attack

After the fire dissipated, they saw a heavily burned ninja, but he was still alive and that was a big feat, the Jounin got closer and realized he was going to die before he could be interrogate so he just pierced his hearth with a wind-enhanced trench knife "Let get the others and hurry to the city, this guys's partners could be somewhere close" said Asuma to the other Chunin before running to his students

When they arrived to the city, Mr Itoko led them to his house; team 8 was going to stay with him while Asuma and team 10 were going to get some information, the ex-guardian ninja took his team with him, Naruto's team was amazing, his kids were logical, smart and quite good fighters, Hinata was the close range specialist, Kiba went in and out of the fights thanks to his speed while Shino was the long range support and one of the best disablers

When he thought about his own team, while Shikamaru was very smart, he wasn't very strong on his own, Ino was very naïve, she was just getting out of her fan-girl attitude and finally Chouji had a great potential, but his style wasn't very good, as a unit they were effective, but individually they couldn't do so much against a dangerous enemy

Asuma felt some movement on his peripheral sight-range so he got on guard, with his team doing the same after him, the Jounin jumped to avoid a barrier technique that trapped his team, he looked around to see to new shinobi wearing clothes similar to their first enemy, there were two new guys, a big and fat young and a thin grey-haired man "Well, well it's seem I trapped some Konoha ninjas" said Jirobo, Asuma knew his team was in some danger, but any rush action could get all of them killed so he had to stay calm

"They are quite resilient" answered Asuma, trying to get some information from this enemy "Are you really trying to fight with me?" asked the Jounin, mocking his enemies, but the rhin one seemed to be in charge and took a step ahead "I'll fight you until Jirobo steals all your kid's chakra till they die" said the man known as Sakon, the ex-guardian realized that served two purposes, it was to give him some pressure, he had to win fast to save their lives, and that could make him take bad decisions

Asuma took his trench knives and charged to his enemy, but said man evaded him and raised his chakra making some black marks appear all over his face and hands, "Is that the cursed seal?" asked Asuma remembering some of the early experiences Anko had with that thing

"Oh…so you know about Orochimaru-sama's might" said Sakon before getting ready to fight this ninja, "I know our new Hokage mopped the floor with him, he even took his ability to mold chakra way" answered Asuma, trying to infuriate him, he knew Orochimaru liked to have servants that worshipped him, so he probably wouldn't take those words very well

Sakon went on the offensive, Asuma knew he had the advantage with the wind-coated weapons, but this ninja was no pushover, he was fast and it seemed his hits packed quite a punch, he wasn't sure but he could swear he saw some multi-image from his punches, the Jounin was hard pressed when he had to block an unexpected strike, coming from his enemy's head '_did that punch came from his forehead?_' asked himself Asuma

Just then, Jirobo's prison exploded, after some analysis, Chouji used his partial expansion to enlarge both his arms and make pressure from two opposite points at the same time, bursting the earth dome, Asuma capitalized the distraction that provided and used his two knives to stab Sakon's abdomen

Then he went to his students "Are you okay?" asked the concerned Jounin sensei, getting nods from the genin, "Asuma!" shouted Shikamaru before catching the enemy with his shadow, said ninja looked surprised, he just gave this guy two fatal wounds and now he was fighting as if nothing happened '_that must be some healing factor_' supposed looking at him

"We must take this seriously Sakon" stated Jirobo, before his chakra rose very quickly and his look changed drastically, Asuma knew it was the cursed seal's doing, but this was the first time he saw the level 2

"Guys stay behind me…if you can find an opening use it, but in that form I don't know if I can protect all of you and fight both of them at the same time" confessed the Sarutobi ninja, before gathering his own chakra, he was going to take this seriously

Asuma just vanished, appearing behind Jirobo, the fat guy was using the level 2 of the curse mark, but he wasn't fast enough to engage Asuma Sarutobi in combat and said Jounin used his wind-enhanced blades to cut his throat and get a one-hit kill, Sakon looked surprised usually people said Konoha's ninjas were nicer, they fight to incapacitate not to kill, but this guys was something else

"Wait…aren't you guys supposed to be nicer?" asked an afraid Ukon from the inside of his brother "Not when we're protecting our students" replied Asuma, before dashing to this guy…guys, whatever he was, but suddenly he was thrown away by a wind blast "Move Sakon, you have no chance" shouted someone hidden around, making the Oto ninja escape, Shikamaru was about to chase him, but some exploding tags came from the same place from the voice, forcing him to take cover

When their enemies were gone, Asuma checked one last time and looked to his students "Are you alright?" asked them "Yes Asuma-sensei" answered Chouji with a smile

"Chouji gave us some soldier pills on the inside of that thing so we're fine" added Shikamaru to assure the Jounin, who told them they had to go back with the client

…

With Mr Itoko

Naruto's team was in the house with the family when Hinata called them, so the four Chunin got outside "What is the problem Hinata-san?" asked a very polite Kabuto, because he knew this was about Oto-shinobi and they could give him away

"There is something weird, two chakra signatures are kind of waiting outside…one of them is very powerful, but they seem to be waiting for us to reach them" said the Hyuga, making Kabuto worry, if it was the person he thought, this was going to become very serious

"Hinata-san can you tell me if this powerful man has two red dots on his forehead?" asked a serious Kabuto, before getting the confirmation from the Hyuga, who shared a surprised look with his teammates "Kids…I can't explain right now, but you have to trust me, that guy is very powerful, probably on Kakashi's level so I need at least two of you with me to take him down" shared the medic nin, making the other Chunin look at him carefully

"We're very clear there is something strange about this and that it involves you, but if our sensei sent you with us, he has a reason and we trust him, so we'll play along" replies Shino on one of his longest speeches ever

Hinata warned to the client about the enemies outside before going for them, the Konoha's team saw Kimimaro and Tayuya, "I'll take care of her" said Hinata before charging her way, and force her to back some distance away

"What are you doing with this trash Kabuto?" asked Kimimaro to the ex Orochimaru's right hand

"I'm not discussing about this with a zealot like you" said Kabuto adjusting his glasses "You must be very careful kids, this man uses his bones as weapons and has a flawless taijutsu…his only weakness is his lung-illness, that will kill him sometime soon" explained Kabuto, making Kimimaro angry, the Kaguya kept on guard when Akamaru transformed and the two Inuzukas charged at him

"Dance of the camellia" said Kimimaro before a hard bone came out of his forearm to be used as a blade to parry both Kiba's attacks, the Inuzuka was going to try another time, but he was forced to jump back to avoid a lethal slash across his head, and then the enemy opened his hands saying "Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets" and his fingertips became dangerous projectiles that Shino blocked with his insects

"Be more careful Kiba" said the stoic Aburame, when Shino was going to look at Kabuto to ask him something, he wasn't there, the medic was facing Kimimaro after a snake trapped his leg, but the Kaguya was very resilient to the chakra scalpels, this were dangerous tools, but weren't that effective against the hardened bone "Dance of the Larch" shouted Kimimaro before a lot of sharp bones came out from his whole body, forcing Kabuto to take some distance, Kimimaro was going for Kabuto, but some insects got on the way, he tried to toss them away, but when he touched them, he felt a powerful current trough his body, but after some seconds he composed himself and retracted most of his protruding bones

"Dance of the Clematis: Vine" said before he pulled out his own spine showing a very dangerous weapon, and then used it as a whip to make all of his enemies take some distance "Dance of the Clematis: Flower" added the sound ninja, before making a drill-like weapon on his left hand, Shino and Kabuto saw most of the contraction this bone had received, they were practically indestructible

This time Kimimaro took the offensive, he went straight for Kabuto recognizing him as the most dangerous foe, the medic was able to dodge the main weapon, but the Kaguya capitalized this distraction, trapping Shino with the whip, Kimimaro retracted this weapon to make him fall on the drill, but when he did, the stabbed Shino was nothing but a swarm of insects, before Kiba started to throw some very stinky mud, Kimimaro evaded most of it, blocking the rest, so when Akamaru started to exhale the fire, he wasn't very surprised, and was able to avoid the flames

Shino used his electric insects to ignite some of the mud, making it a dangerous place for Kimimaro to fight, but the Kaguya decided to take them seriously and activated the cursed seal, using the level two, transforming into a dinosaur-like look that was very frightening

Kimimaro made blades from most of his bones, coming out of his body and charged at the Konoha's ninjas, ignoring the fire or electricity around, he just charged at his enemies with his drill as the main weapon and his whole body was support, because every spin and twist was very dangerous thanks to his bloodline, Kiba and Akamaru were avoiding the attacks with ease, they were quite fast, but Shino wasn't so much, even Kabuto had to take a hit on his place to keep him safe

In that moment Akamaru jumped to Kiba's back and both said "Human Beast Combination Transformation: Double-Headed Wolf" and after a smoke cloud formed, a giant two headed wolf came out, this was a very powerful, but it was still on development phase "Collaboration jutsu: Blazing Shapeshift" added before getting on flames, so now it was a giant two headed wolf…on fire, said creature thrown a very big fire blast at Kimimaro, who made some kind of helmet with his own bones and charged towards this new Kiba, even Kabuto was amazed at the technique, it was something never seen before, and when the Kaguya was nearing his target, the creature started spinning to the other side of the field, in a deadly "Super Fang Wolf Fang" said Kiba, making many slashes on Kimimaro's bone armor

Kabuto noticed Kimimaro was breathing hard, even coughing some blood sometimes and probably the kids picked it too, because Kiba was making fire as if there was no tomorrow, probably to saturate the air and consume all the oxygen, Shino was gathering some of his insects, but the main fighter was Kiba, this new form was something else

But when he was charging to Kimimaro, the Kaguya moved aside and trapped him with the whip, making stop the flames on his body, "Get him out of that grip, I'll cover you" shouted Shino to Kabuto who ran to the fighters "Secret Technique: Insect Sphere" said before a great swarm of insect came from his sleeves and covered Kimimaro, trying to concentrate on his nose and mouth, they were trying to suffocate him

Kabuto used a momentum-enhanced chakra scalpel to free Kiba and Akamaru of the Kaguya's spine and put them on a safe place, before going for the prideful Kaguya, Kabuto jumped to the transformed ninja shoulders, and jumped again before being stabbed for his arm-bones protruding, then he kept close and enduring the pain from Kimimaro's ribs he punctured his lung, making him start coughing a lot of blood before falling to the ground

It was anticlimactic, but in the end, Kimimaro was suffocated to death with a punctured lung and surrounded by fire, and ended lying on the burned ground

….

..

Hinata on the other hand, was dealing with Tayuya, thanks to her Byakugan she didn't fall for any illusion, she could see the real Tayuya and any image she tried to make, so they weren't effective at all, the sound kunoichi was forced to summon her doki demons and going to level two or the Hyuga's speed would have been her end, but even in those conditions, Hinata was more versatile

When one of the summons tried to attack Hinata, she used her clan's absolute defense "Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven" but she gathered some water around the technique, so when it ended, the water was spinning around her "Water Release: Slicer disc" said Hinata before throwing some water disc to Tayuya, who used her dokis as shields, but they were cut down without stopping the attack that ended her life

….

..

At the end of the day, most enemies were dead, the remaining ones were very far because they ran for their lives, and the Konoha's ninjas were in good shape, some were a little shaken, but nothing to worry, in the end, Mr Itoko and the city's mayor thanked them and both teams got back to Konoha

….

..

"Well guys, congratulations for the successful mission, you'll be paid for the upgraded A-rank mission" said Naruto to the two teams, asking for his students to stay "I think you want to ask something" added Naruto looking at their faces

"There was something weird with Kabuto and those freaks!" confessed Kiba very loudly, making Hinata and Shino nod

"Well, you probably don't know, but Kabuto's life has been quite hard, I'm not going to explain everything, but in the end he was Orochimaru's spy just because he was the only that showed some purpose in life…after sensei killed him, I found some archives with this information and confronted him, so I gave him a choice, he could run away from Konoha and never return or become my secret agent and find things for me…and that's what he chose" explained Naruto leaving many thing out, but they didn't need to know Konoha and Danzou were responsible of this twisted man, so he had some kind of debt with the medic and that's why he gave him a chance

"If you think he can be trusted, we'll support you sensei" replied Hinata, speaking for the three of them

"Speaking of something else…I want to congratulate you Kiba, this new transformation is something incredible…I'm proud of you guys" confessed Naruto with a happy smile on his face "let's go to celebrate" said before getting out of the office

….

..

"Are you sure of this Nagato?" asked a very concerned Konan, this was a risky move, because despite their loss at Konoha, they still had a large number of shinobi

"Yes Konan…you know nothing can stand in a god's way" answered Pain '_in the past Ame cried for their losses in the ninja wars, this time we have to change the place of the fights_' thought to himself, he knew his own power but even him couldn't win a war on himself so he had to use tactics and diversions

"Okay Nagato, if you think it's possible…we'll take Sunagakure" finally said Konan, taking Nagato's words to the heart


	5. Chapter 5

Helooooo!

The first thing i have to say is sorry for taking so long to publish this, but i've had a lot of work, last week was brutal, between my work and helping my mom i just had sunday to sleep, but that's in the past

Thanks for the reviews, i really apreciate them, for the people asking about a girl for Naruto, i always keep it as a secret until last time possible. For those with criticism for my english i thank you, i'll try to look into it but as english is not my born language, i usually think short phrases in english so trying to write a long paragraph is kind of hard at this moment ( i hope this helps me to improve) (i have no idea how to use "semicolons" properly)

And now, speaking about the chapter, I hope you like it because i had many ideas and did my best effort to put them together

You should probably realize i don't like cannon stories so the "akatsuki vs the five ninja villages" war is not going to happen, but probably there would be some of war, or another kind of conflict. I like to put things in motion, keeping Naruto as the center of the story so if something happens to someone else don't be surprised if I don't elaborate on it

I'd like your opinion but i like to write facts first and the explanation later, for example -Naruto made the mountain explode- and then someone else thinks '_he used a powerful doton jutsu for that_' so that gives you the chance to think about the explanation, because i could write the reasoning and then the fact, for example: '_-I would probably need a very powerful doton enhanced punch to make that explode_' and then put the hit (I would like some opinions about that...and some guessing of the last move Naruto uses on this chapter)

* * *

**Chapter 5**

People in Suna wasn't having a good time, since the failed invasion they weren't seen as one of the big ninja villages anymore, the clients were very few and many ninja even fled from the village

It was midnight, it was very cold and people was resting for the next day, suna's ninjas were used to hardships in life, and this was just another test from life…or so they thought before a shout was heard "Shinra Tensei"

Sunagakure was just a big castle built in the desert, so when you destroyed it from the inside, the sand just returned to the desert, many people died from the initial impact, the lucky ones were shaken from the almighty push and got up looking for the attacker "Temari, What was that?" asked Kankuro to his sister

"There's a guy floating on the sky" said the blonde pointing a specific place on the sky

Before anyone could to something to protect the village, that person flying in the middle of the village, summoned three giant animals, a very big Rhino, a strange bird and a centipede, the Rhino started to demolish any building standing, while the bird thrown some eggs to the survivors, and the centipede got underground to came out and attack someone

Temari pulled Kankurou from the ground, some ninjas were gathering behind some destroyed buildings to counterattack, but there was only one problem, Pain wasn't alone

The ninjas that were planning to strike back, were surprised when they were completely covered in exploding tags "I'm sorry" admitted Konan before detonating all the tags, both of them were S-rank shinobi, and even a weakened village was a strong fortress, but Pain's powers were too lethal if you didn't know the mystery behind them

It was just an hour, but the heavily weakened Sunagakure fell to the fury of the founders of Akatsuki, Pain was satisfied because this put things in motion and now all he had to do was waiting for the old grudges and traditions to do their work

"We did it Nagato" said Konan impressed after taking down one of the five great ninja villages

"This is just the beginning" replied the tired Uzumaki before gathering his paths

What Nagato neither Konan saw, was a barrel-like puppet, this was a post-war weapon strengthened with powerful containment seals that opened to reveal both sand siblings "Kakuro…What happened?" asked Temari in tears

"That guy…that robe, they destroyed everything" said Kankuro crying in anger, first Konoha demolished their forces and now Akatsuki destroyed their home to the ground… "We have to go Temari…this is just the beginning" added the puppeteer taking his sister and getting away from the ruins of Suna

….

..

The next few days, many people knew about Suna's fate, no one knew the culprit, but that wasn't relevant, Suna was just a memory and that left a void in the balance of the world.

"Who could have done that?" asked Naruto, who hated to not know everything

"I don't know…but the problem comes now, Iwa's probably going to take their place or at least try to do it" said Jiraiya with a serious expression

"Can we do something about it?" asked Naruto

"We can…but you have to think about all the possibilities" replied Jiraiya "If we send our troops to the desert, someone could try to attack us" added Jiraiya

"I can have Sai spying the place…but what are we going to do if Iwa or Kumo try to invade?" asked himself, he had to think carefully or the effects could be awful for the whole world

Both hermits were thinking about the best measures to deal with this issue when the door opened and the old man appeared "Would you like another point of view?" asked the Sandaime Hokage

…

..

Naruto had some root ninja patrolling wind country's desert, so far none other nation had made a claim, probably Orocmiharu's death was positive in this case, the treacherous sanin was an opportunist man

Some weeks had passed, and things were tense but peaceful so far "Naruto, I have a letter from the daimiyo" said Sarutobi entering to the Hokage's office, the blond opened the scroll and read it

Esteemed Naruto

I have some kind of personal request, after everything that has happened with Suna, I'm a little worried about the other countries so the wind daimiyo asked us to help him build a new castle to protect the country with the help of the wind monks, this is not an order, but I think balance is a better choice than revenge

Hi no kuni, feudal lord

"What is your choice?" asked Sarutobi to his pupil

"I'll help" was Naruto's answer

….

..

The next week started the mission; a deal of monthly payments equivalent to a S-rank mission for two years was the price, because Naruto got some highly qualified shinobi to the task, even himself

The castle building team was formed by himself, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Kakashi Hatake and Tenzo, some support ninjas like Kabuto and Fu Yamanaka came with the team, while Jiraiya was the main ninja staying in Konoha

Naruto and Sarutobi did the rock foundations with their advanced earth manipulation, in that mission Naruto used for the first time his new technique, it lacked a name but was basically an elemental orb made with Naruto's chakra that floated around Naruto and was able to cast his own elemental ninjutsu of the element it had, using that Naruto had been able to apply extreme pressure to the rocks of the building to support the structure

Tenzo used the mokuton to anchor the building to the underground, even making some tunnels before all of them lifted strong walls and made the whole place, the castle was very high to make it easy for a long distance specialist to defend it, and its size was like two mountains, it could house around one thousand people despite the fifty or something that were going to live it that place at the start

The Konoha's ninjas finished the whole thing in six days, most of them had to take soldier pills, except for Naruto and Sarutobi, the first used sage mode to amplify his chakra capacity and potency, while Sarutobi had an awesome chakra control and his reserves were still big despite his age

At the seventh day, the very same Daimiyo from Wind country came to approve the building, he was quite satisfied with the result and thanked Naruto and his ninjas, who accepted this gesture and returned to Konoha

…

By the end of the next week, Naruto was going out again, this time was for the Chunin exams, it was Kumo's turn to organize the event and with all the tension between the nations, the four great shinobi villages were going to send their genin to give the kages a reason to visit Kumogakure

Naruto left Sarutobi and Jiraiya on charge of the village's safety while he left with his old team as bodyguards and Kabuto in the medic-nin spot, the genin of this exams were Gai's, Kakashi's and Asuma's team, and this time they were going for the glory

The Kyubi jinchuuriki had a weird feeling, something told him this travel would be very eventful and that got him motivated to arrive as soon as possible

And while many villages were making preparations for this event, in the shadows, some unseen forces were lurking in the dark

…

..

After some days, the Chunin selection exam begun with a great number or participants, and the four Kage were in the same place, for the first time since the war, but they never gathered on the same place, usually A and Onoki were on their own, while Naruto accompanied Yagura

They talked about was Suna's fate, they were aware none of them was responsible for their destruction, and that was something to worry, another force aside from the four great shinobi villages was able to demolish Suna, obviously Naruto and Yagura believed it was Akatsuki, but the reason behind that was unclear, A didn't think so much about it, if they were weak enough to get beaten for some minor force, they deserved to be destroyed and finally Onoki was paying a lot of attention to the kages's reaction to the topic, to see if they were interested in suna's place

The second phase of the Chunin selection exams, was a survival test in the mountains, A was a simple minded man, he thought strength was the most important attribute so each team had a token and to complete the test, the teams needed two tokens

Kumo's mountains were harsh, cold and very dangerous, the exam started around three mountains and the goal was a small encampment with most of the Jounin sensei waiting for their teams, they had one hundred hours to reach their goal so all the teams moved with haste

Kumo had many teams on the exams, but B's team was the strongest, Konoha had three strong and skilled genin teams, while Kiri sent the only three Yagura thought would be able to put some fight, Iwa was known widely for their numbers so they had like ten teams

Konoha's delegation were always followed outside the designed hotel, Kiri was staying in another hotel to avoid unknown meetings between their kages and Iwa was in a big encampment built by themselves, the old Onoki could only trust in self-made rocks

Despite the tension between the four remaining villages, the exams were going smoothly the end of the second phase was found with three teams from Konoha, one from Kumo and one from Iwa, it wasn't needed to say A and Onoki were furious, it seemed Konoha proved superior again, those damn tree-huggers thought A looking at the results

Five genin teams meant preliminary fights, one free pass and seven fights to get eight finalists to show the villages might "Alright kids, this exams are a show for the people to see the each village's power, you are the next generation that will be doing mission for the next ten or twenty years so to show your full potential this are fights to the death, the first will be between…" said A to the genin gathered around

Mabui took a box with all their names on it, so Darui took a paper "Uchiha Sasuke" said before A's secretary moved the box and the black ninja came with another name "Omoi from Kumo" said Darui, so both genin moved to the fighting field to have the duel "greetings boys, my name is C and I'll be the preliminary proctor, you'll fight each other until one of you surrender, dies or until I say stop…in there is no questions?" both said a negative gesture with their heads "begin!" shouted the blond Jounin before getting out of the way

"Cloud-Style Crescent Moon Beheading" shouted Omoi before drawing his blade quickly and charging towards Sasuke who smirked, a kenjutsu fighter was something favorable to him; his Sharingan predicted all of his strikes and feints, so all what he needed was a kunai to dodge all Omoi's attacks and learn his patterns, this wasn't going to be Kumo's exclusive style

Kakashi was happy for his student, he knew Sasuke would copy the Omoi fighting style and adapt it for later use, B was also watching the fight cheering and raping for his student, who was getting annoyed for his inability to land a hit. Sasuke blocked Omoi's sword and went to the offensive stabbing Omoi's chest "Cloud-Style Deception Beheading" shouted the Kumo ninja using a Kawarimi-Kenjutsu combination that didn't fool Sasuke, he saw the kawarimi thanks to his Sharingan so there was no surprise at all, the Uchiha was getting bored of this "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique" said Sasuke throwing a fireball to his enemy who jumped aside

Sasuke was expecting this jump to he was there before his rival taking him by the wrist forcing him to drop his sword "Lightning Release: Thunderbolt" shouted Omoi as soon as the blade touched the floor, his hands were filled with electric spheres electrocuting his opponent, when Sasuke fell to the ground, he looked back to his sensei but the world around him went completely black before getting knocked out

On the surroundings, all the ninjas saw Omoi fighting the air while Sasuke looked at him with his Sharingan '_That damn eye…it caught him from the moment he did that replacement_' analyzed A from the genin's fight "Uchiha Sasuke's the winner and the first finalist" said C after checking Omoi

"Now it's Kurotsuchi and Sakura's turn" said Darui with the names box, both kunoichi got into the field and after looking at their rival, the fight begun with the Iwa's kunoichi taking the lead "Water Release: Water Trumpet" shouted Kurotsuchi before a large jet of water was launched to Sakura's way, the pink-haired girl raised both glowing hands to block the attack 'She's using Kabuto's chakra scalpels' realized Kakashi looking at the fight

The copy nin went to Naruto asking for help, Sakura and Kuro were nowhere near Sasuke's level and he had no idea how to help them anymore, so the blond Hokage suggested some introductions, quite shocking introductions, Sakura was sent to Kabuto while Kuro went with Anko, after a week both were taking their careers seriously

Sakura was developing as a field combat medic, Kabuto lacked Tsunade's monstrous strength, but the gray haired kid used chakra scalpels to inflict even more damage, it was a internal damage very similar to the Byakugan, the main problem was the kunoichi physical ability (or the lack of it) she needed to get close to her opponent to hit him, and that was the main point of her training, that and healing techniques

Kurotsuchi was clearly a more experienced and talented ninja, she had years of training while Sakura just some months, so in the end the Iwa Kunoichi knocked Sakura with some earth jutsus, but the pinkette was able to put a fight

"Next fight is Neji from Konoha and Karui from Kumo" said Darui and the place got quite colder, the Kumo people felt something off from Neji, while the ninjas from Konoha knew the reason and were expecting to see his behavior "any kumo ninja fated to fight against me has his life to forfeit" warned Neji to the proctor who looked at him carefully

Karui took her blade and got her guard up, while Neji just assumed a low stance, C ordered to fight and the girl charged to the Hyuga quickly, but Neji wasn't a prodigy for nothing, he grabbed her wrist, twisted it and landed some strikes in both her arms, taking away her ability to mold chakra trough them, the kunoichi was frustrated, Neji was really fast, he moved in a blur and sealed all the chakra from his arms

She didn't expect this power difference with another genin, but she was no match for this guy and all she could do was her best effort "I'm not done yet" said Karui before taking out a short sword from her back and charging towards Neji "Cloud-Style Front Beheading" shouted, but instead of the dangerous electric blade she just made a quick slash, but despite that, Neji shouted "Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven" and the chakra rotating sphere threw her away, but before she could blink, the Hyuga was in front of her with an open palm "St-op!" tried to shout C but Neji was faster than him and delivered the fatal blow, tearing her hearth apart

C's first concern was Karui, so while A was furious with the outcome, his personal medic was trying to save the girl. B, Omoi and Samui went with her, but she had a heavy bleeding and no one could grow a hearth from thin air "What is your problem brat!" asked very loudly the Raikage from his place

Neji had the Byakugan active from the fight so his glare was kind of frightening "you were the responsible for my dad's death!" shouted back the young genin, making A's eyes widen

C declared Neji as the winner and warned everybody to pay more attention to him, so Darui took another couple of names "Akatsuchi from Iwa against Kuro from Konoha" said the black Jounin

Kakashi's last student, against one of the Tsuchikage's favorites, Kuro started throwing some weapons to his enemy, he even was able to cast the shuriken kage bunshin no jutsu dealing some damage to his surprised opponent, but the bug guy was a good doton user, first he used a golem to keep Kuro dodging and running instead of shooting his weapons, second he did another golem to use as a shield from the little weapon Kuro could fire while running away from the first earth release construct and third a last golem appeared from the ground to trap Kuro and forcing him to give up

"Next are Suzumebachi from Iwa against Rock Lee from Konoha" said Darui, and after both genin got in place, C instructed them to start "Leaf Whirlwind" shouted Lee before appearing right in front of the girl, who blocked the high kick with her arms, but took the full force of the low kick sending her away '_This kid seems interesting_' thought A looking at Lee's body, specially his hands

'_Come on Lee, show them your power of youth_' wished Gai looking at his student hit the defenseless girl, the girl was from the Kamizuru clan, another insect-user clan like the Aburame from Konoha, but they usually preferred Bees over beetles, Suzumebachi used a special bee honey destined to restrict the movements of taijutsu users, but after Gai's authorization Lee's unlocked the first internal gate and his power skyrocketed, breaking the hard honey as nothing and delivering a hard kick to Suzumebachi's head that got her unconscious

"Now it's Ino and Tenten turn, both from Konoha" said Darui, making both girls face each other "Fight" shouted C making Tenten throw a lot of weapons, which Ino avoid with some difficulties, Tenten knew Ino was a medium to long range fighter too, so he tried to use her deadly aim to take her by surprise and force her into submission with a sword or mace, Ino tried to see the pattern behind Tenten projectiles, so when she was confident enough, she did a hand seal making the weapon-girl jump to avoid the yamanaka-jutsu to fall just closer to an exploding tag she left in that position a little earlier in the fight, Tenten cursed for being so careless and tried to counterattack before seeing Ino forming a square-like seal with both hands because now she couldn't move her body "Mind Body Disturbance Technique...success" said Ino looking at Tenten with a smile, she forced the girl to take a kunai from the ground and aim to her own neck before C stopped the fight declaring Ino victorious

"The final fight from the preliminaries is between Chouji and Shikamaru from Konoha" said Darui, making the friends look at each other, Chouji didn't want to fight Shikamaru and the Nara was feeling the same, none of them was too worried for the promotion but Ino and their moms could be a pain if they both gived up "The decision is up to you guys" said Asuma with a smile, so finally both were to the field and played rock-paper-scissors with Shikamaru winning the match, to the skeptic look from everyone '_are they for real?_' asked himself A

"That means Uchiha Sasuke, Kurotsuchi, Hyuga Neji, Kitsuchi, Rock Lee, Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Samui will fight in the finals, that'll take place one month from now in the stadium, now go to your leaders and leave us" said A very rudely to everybody, he was still affected for the Hyuga guy, he clearly hated him and that would be a dangerous man, he was clearly talented and would look any excuse to kill any Kumo ninja crossing his way

….

..

All Konoha's ninjas were gathered in the hotel the next day, Naruto was already informed about the exams and even Neji's actions but he didn't do anything out of place so he just said to him to be careful with the rules

"Alright we'll staying here and the Raikage lent us a mountain to ourselves so we'll be able to train, everybody stays we came together and we leave together…anything weird happens and go with me, all of you know about the possibility of an attack so please don't try to be a hero stay behind me and we'll leave with the same people we came here" said the blond to the Konoha's group

Some days had passed away, the training in the mountains was hard and even the genin that lost in the preliminaries were training, Naruto had asked to everybody to get stronger, but in this moments said blonde was walking to Kumo's market when a man got in front of him

"Look what the cloud brought!" exclaimed Naruto in a mocking tone, looking at the person in front of him "It's been a while Naruto" said Itachi Uchiha looking at him with his red eyes, "It's Hokage-sama now" said the blond with a smile

When the Hokage sensed some chakra around Itachi's Sharingan, he quickly moved and put a hand on his forehead, Itachi's world went black for some seconds before appearing in a castle "This place has changed since last time" commented Itachi as if it was just some house furniture

"It's safer for your eyes to speak here" said Naruto to his old friend, before giving him a hug

….

….

Unfortunately, not everybody had a friend in Akatsuki, so Yugito got a not-so-friendly hug from Kisame, when the ex-Kiri ninja faced a jinchuuriki they tended to repeat the patterns, they used their natural abilities, then it was time for bijou enhanced natural styles, and finally bijou time at full power

Kisame knew he wasn't strong enough to overpower a bijou, but Samehada gave him the ability to disable most of ninjas, specially jinchuuriki so he didn't need to fight them for long, some shaved here, some shark there and now Itachi was distracting the local forces of Kumo while he took the jinchuuriki body out of the country by water

The Uchiha was an ANBU captain before going rogue; he used shadow clones and fireballs to keep defending ninjas busy while the real one watched the fights from afar

…

..

A was very angry…he couldn't believe Akatsuki would be so brash to take her jinchuuriki in his own village, and when he got there, he couldn't find none of the culprits

These exams were going quite bad, first his ninjas paled in comparison with Konoha's, second that Hyuga prick killed one of his brother's students and now Akatsuki stole the Nibi and took away one of his best Jounin

"Someone call B!" shouted A very loudly, his brother needed to be aware of this, and he was going to ask him to be harder with Samui, the busty Kunoichi was Kumo's only chance to show the village's might

…

Some day later, in a very far mountain

Kiba transformed in a giant flaming two headed wolf, this new form his fastest transformation and even with that, Naruto's shadow clone was faster than him "Focus Kiba…We told you how" said the original blond

At the start Kiba was like a blind killing machine, the two headed wolf form was fast and dangerous, but now Akamaru put the fire and Kiba had to focus on his opponent chakra signature

The Inuzuka charged again, Naruto's clone watched with interest while his student took a spiral trajectory making his attack unpredictable, but the biggest surprise was when the giant wolf split in two smaller ones, the original charged to the Hokage, making him move aside to get hit by Akamaru

…

..

Shino's turn wasn't so flashy or visually attractive, the Aburame wasn't a front combat ninja, sure he was a good fighter but he was an excellent disabler so with electrical bugs he was able to lure Naruto's clone into a trap and zap it away letting him pass that particular exam

….

..

That meant it was Hinata's turn, the previously shy Hyuga had flourished into an incredible woman, she was having a nice physical development and her ninja skills were increasing steadily

She stood on guard while Naruto's clone looked at her, one blink and she wasn't there; the mountain didn't let her use her eyes to get some advantage because there was nowhere to hide, but she was a good frontal fighter too

In the taijutsu match, Hinata and the Godaime's clone were exchanging strikes, blow per blow, surprising the original with her speed, the bunshin had one tenth of his speed, but that was enough to beat many jounins, soon the blond and young Hokage realized Hinata was extremely quick and agile in short spaces, her eyes and training gave her reflexes second to none, but in long distance or when you ran away, she wasn't so fast as the bunshin

When Naruto's replica tried a powerful wind blast, the Hyuga replied with the heavenly spin, protecting herself, but that was a dangerous move because when the technique ended, Naruto was right in front of her trying to strike her down with a fire powered kick, but suddenly the clones exploded "What was that?" asked Kiba surprised for the unseen attack

"Congratulations Hinata your water mastery is coming along nicely" said the original Hokage very happy for his students, meanwhile Shino looked very carefully to the battlefield and Kiba had absolutely no idea about what happened

"It seems Hinata saturated the water vapor around her with chakra while spinning and then used that chakra to strike some chakra points in the clone…Am I right?" explained the usually silent Aburame looking at his master who smiled and nodded

"Well guys, I'm very proud of you" said again Naruto with a bright smile on his face "You have become adult ninjas in my eyes now, I hope you keep improving every day without forget your bonds and principles, cherish your loved ones and be merciless with the enemy, the next test will be hitting the real me, but for that you can take some years to train" added Naruto before leaving his team to celebrate between them

….

..

It was midnight, the mountain was cold and dark but if you looked in the distance there was a small light at the top of the place, that light was the Godaime Hokage…

…while most people was sleeping before the great day, the third phase of Chunin selections exams, he was meditating and thinking about his talking with his old friend Itachi

Naruto liked to be in control of things, that was the reason he wanted to be Hokage, to be able to take the hard decisions because he didn't like when other people took them for him, and that was the reason behind his anger with the Sandaime Hokage for the Uchiha massacre, he wasn't a fan of the clan, most were arrogant assholes, but he hated being left in the dark

His meeting with Itachi brought some memories when both of them were Shisui Uchiha students, they were a force to be reckoned, and one of the first three man units because the kunoichi was a useless fan girl that Shisui sent to the academy and screw the rules, they were going to be a three man team and that was final, Itachi and Naruto's teamwork was flawless, so that made unnecessary the addition of another member

They stood as genin just for six months because in the Chunin selections exams hosted in Suna, both geniuses were promoted after giving up in the third phase finals, they bet all other genin but refused to fight each other

And not so long after, both friends took separated ways, while Naruto traveled with Jiraiya, Itachi trained to enter the ANBU and that was the end of Shisui's team, but both of them shared many fond memories from that time. Naruto knew Itachi was a powerful ninja, but he would never betray him, thanks to him he confirmed about the trap with the fake Akatsuki members that attacked Konoha in the invasion and the man who destroyed Suna, the powerful rinnegan wielder known as Pain, Itachi even told him about the masked man's involvement in the Uchiha massacre

Naruto was unsure what to do with some of the information, what good would make to announce the power of Akatsuki, what option was better the fear or the ignorance? The Hokage pondered about many topics, he had some training to do if there was the possibility of fighting any of the leaders of Akatsuki: one of them was a self-proclaimed god, while the other called himself Uchiha Madara

….

..

It was the big day, an incredible amount of people was in the stadium, and for the first time in many years, four kages (the only remaining) were together in the same place while the Raikage announced the start of the third phase, people was cheering and betting for their favorites while merchants, spies, ninjas and civilians from everywhere were waiting for the show

"Welcome to the final round of the Chunin selection exams, we'll start with the match between Samui from Kumogakure and Sasuke from Konohagakure" said A before the people start to shout and yell many things very loudly

Both genin went to the battlefield, Samui was angry with Sasuke for Karui's death, it may not be Sasuke's fault but she would take revenge in any Konoha ninja she could, and despite not knowing it Sasuke shared something with her, he wasn't happy either. His brother infiltrated Kumo to take one of their ninjas under their own noses, he couldn't believe his brother was so close to him and he was so far behind his level that he didn't even noticed it, Samui had absolutely no relationship with the incident, but Kumo ninjas were quite incompetent for not being able to capture him so he was going to show them they needed more power

C gave the finals instructions before jumping away, Samui started with a quick kenjutsu move, but Sasuke took a kunai from his pouch and blocked the attack, the girl was surprised to see the weapon in one piece, but the older ninjas realized it was a lightning coated knife.

Samui engaged Sasuke in physical combat, her combat style was a mix between taijutsu and kenjutsu and his sensei told him despite the great advantage the Sharingan gave to Sasuke, one of the weakness of the Uchihas was their own speed, their eyes were able to follow and see every movement, but their bodies usually weren't that fast so you had two options to exploit this weakness, the first was just being significantly faster than them, the second was being just a little faster and forcing to use chakra to enhance their physical speed, Samui was two years older than Sasuke, she was confident in her speed and experience, so engaging an Uchiha in taijutsu/kenjutsu wasn't a madness

Sasuke was being hard pushed, but his Sharingan let him fight at the girl's level, the people watching the fight was following it with interest it was a clash between Kumo's only ninja and Konoha's prodigy, the last of his clan

The woman knew this was a mental fight, if she wanted exhausting to Sasuke the kunoichi had to force him to make mistakes, the madder he was, the more probability of slipping or doing some mistake and getting the upper hand "Aren't you too young for this?" asked she underestimating him, but the Uchiha paid no attention "Well you are right…your brother didn't spare even little boys…maybe you were so useless than killing you would be a waste of time" said the Kumo kunoichi making Sasuke glare at her "You got it…it's personal now" stated the last loyal Uchiha

Samui had a problem, while she was faster than Sasuke; she couldn't see chakra so she never saw the Rai-kage bunshin coming until it was too late, the replica exploded stunning the busty girl then he jumped backwards and did some handseals

The Uchiha was seeing red, and instead of Samui his opponent was his older brother so he channeled lightning chakra on his right arm and charged toward the exposed girl with all his strength, C sensed something and tried to stop him, the Uchiha wasn't on his right mind…he wanted to kill Itachi and consequences be damned

C saw the Chidori on Sasuke's right hand and ran to him, he was a sensor and while it was faint, there was another chakra source emanating from Sasuke, a deeper and darker Chakra so he got worried for Samui and tried to intercept him, the Uchiha saw something and did just what his Sharingan told him, he bend to the left and tried to go on, but the Jounin grabbed his wrist

The main problem was his rage, because in his blind anger he tried to kill the person between him and Sasuke and that meant C, somehow Sasuke was able to expand the lightning blade piercing the jounin's stomach

A tense silence filled the stadium, Sasuke did something nobody expected trying to kill the proctor, and while it wasn't the first time a genin tried to attack the proctor, it was the first time someone succeeded

Sasuke was on his own world, he didn't realize what he did until the moment he felt the massive chakra coming from the Raikage, the man was like a giant chakra generator, just then he opened the eyes and saw his lightning blade piercing trough C's trunk, while Sasuke was a proud and stubborn ninja he felt true fear feeling that chakra, it was the same powerless feeling his older brother made him feel on that dreadful night

In that moment Kakashi remembered a talk he had with Naruto some nights ago…

Flash Back

Both of them were walking away from the rest of the Konoha ninjas, Naruto asked about his students because he was worried about the other two beside Sasuke, but after that Naruto shared some of his fears "Kakashi…I know this may be too pessimist…but if something happens and any other kage attack one of us…my order to all our ninjas is stay behind me" instructed Naruto with a serious tone

Kakashi knew Naruto very well, he wasn't so close to the blond but he was always looking and assessing from the distance, the copy nin knew Naruto inherited his father mindset he was a good and happy man, but he usually was three or four steps ahead than most people and that was what made them Hokage, they were always prepared for anything and if he was saying this, probably he had some kind of plan to kill any of the other Kages

End Flash Back

The people let out a breath they didn't realized they were holding when Naruto saved his genin, and the battle field was used by the most powerful men in the place, Naruto was looking carefully with one of his chakra spheres behind him, while A was showing is lightning armor, the Raikage was mad for all the bad things that had happened in this exams and couldn't think clearly

When Sasuke opened his eyes he saw Naruto's back and didn't even realize he was moved by someone else 'is this the difference?' asked himself 'The Hokage was the best friend of my brother and both are supposed to be closer in terms of power…but to face that frightening man…he must be…is he able to be more powerful than the Raikage?' questioned Sasuke mentally looking at the two facing kages

Soon all of the Konoha's ninjas gathered behind Naruto just as he instructed, because the blond knew no one else would attack them close to him, the only man bold enough to that was in front of him "If they think your back is so safe…let's show them what happens when I tear it apart" said A before flaring his chakra and charging to Naruto "Lariat!" shouted the big man making all the people fear for the Hokage and all his ninjas

Naruto stood on his place and when A charged towards his position he channeled a lot of chakra and blocked with his tonfas, he usually fought with ninjutsu, but when things were more physical he preferred tonfas, because they there chakra conductive and usually non-lethal

In this case they were ideal and everyone opened his mouths in surprise when A was thrown away after land his lariat, B was stunned…the Lariat was a demolishing move and the Hokage withstood it with a pair of tonfas, he didn't even moved back he held his ground against his brother "If you try another attack I'll retaliate" warned Naruto while A was standing from the place he landed after his opening move failed "My ninjas hear me…we're leaving this place now" stated Naruto in a loud voice, while he looked A in the eyes, the man was speechless because this was the first time his attack was ineffective like that, a lot of time ago Minato avoid him with superior speed, but his kid wasn't so fast he took the hit and somehow withstood it and thrown him away like if A was nothing

After the last of his ninjas was out of the village the blond spoke again "I hope you don't try to ask for the head of one of my ninjas, because there is thousands of people that saw you attack one of them and I really hope this is the last time…because if this happens again,I'll make sure it doesn't happen again" declared Naruto before leaving in a blur, Naruto was able to manipulate the wind to reduce the air resistance to his movement letting him use a high speed movement

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Any comment or review is welcomed

I'll try to write on the week


	6. Chapter 6

Hello again! This is like a reward for your patience and support

I've had some free time to write this, but currently it's 4 in the morning so i'm quite sleepy and you could find some mistakes

I hope you like it

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**Chapter 6**

Kakashi and most of the older ninjas were quite shocked, after Minato's death most people thought A was the strongest ninja in the elemental countries, that didn't mean he was unbeatable but in terms of power and speed he was the best

But clearly the Namikaze blood was powerful; Naruto took a direct hit and gave it back, from the Raikage no less

When said blond met with the rest of his ninjas, he led them out of the country because the place wasn't sure anymore '_The experiment worked_' though Naruto while traveling with his ninjas '_First I used my chakra sphere to test the polarity of A's armor so when it got attracted I knew I had to use the opposite polarity on my body and the tonfas then I used a lot of chakra on my feet and he got the impact of his own power on his arms_' analyzed Naruto thinking about how basic physics saved his ass in the fight, A wasn't a very smart man but he didn't need it because he was powerful, fast and his father raised to succeed him, he was a dangerous enemy but he wasn't going to find the secret behind that attack, only a very skilled sensor could and the only nearby was the dying one

Kiba and Hinata were absolutely impressed by his sensei, both felt the massive chakra signature from the man and he outmaneuvered him with ease, which was the epitome of a ninja because the most powerful wasn't always the winner, many times the smartest one was the victor

…

In Kumo the things were very weird, after that incident the exams were suspended, Yagura took all his ninjas and left the hidden cloud as fast as possible, while Onoki laughed about the young people of this days, the merchants were enraged about the interruptions on their bets and many important people felt they had wasted their time

A realized he could get even angrier than he was at the start of this exam…

The Raikage was alone in a mountain, he was destroying it blow per blow with the full power of his lightning armor to vent some frustration, in the end he lost three ninjas, two of them were important to him while the third was his brother's student, he lost a lot of money and probably lost the next turn to host the exams, on days like this he felt like if the whole world fell upon him

B tried to talk to him at first but he didn't listen because in that moment he just wanted to be alone to unleash his anger in something he couldn't hurt, he was too angry to speak with someone he could hurt…the problem was B was feeling quite sad too, he lost one of his precious students and his jinchuuriki-partner so without A he felt very lonely

The only man with a smile after that day was Onoki, the old Tsuchikage was grinning on the inside because Kumo lost a lot of power on that day, thay had lost one of their jinchuurikis and now A was tossed aside for a child, the son of the only man to beat him in terms of speed, it was almost poetic how Konoha managed to create ninjas that powerful in every generation

Now the question was, Is Akatsuki willing to fight against a big ninja village other than Konoha? Was pondering Onoki, he knew this was a weird time, Suna had fallen to a mysterious force, probably Akatsuki, Kumo had fallen to Akatsuki and Konoha but they still could have something to say, Kiri had gotten on their feet thanks to Konoha…the hidden leaf always seemed to be in the middle of everything

The Tsuchikage knew the hidden leaf was the most powerful nation in these moments, so a frontal attack was out of the question, but what would happen if someone attacks their neighbors, the problem was about proportions, how many ninjas send to an invasion without leaving the village exposed and fortunately for Iwagakure the old fossil was quite good at warfare

…

..

When the Hokage and his ninjas arrived at Konoha, there was many people waiting for them at the gates, news about the events happened in the Chunin exams traveled faster than them so Jiraiya and Sarutobi were expecting them to be running from Kumo shinobi but despite being on the run, the group was calm and almost happy

Sarutobi realized any fear they got from the Raikage or any Kumogakure ninja, Naruto dissipated it with his frightening power and elemental mastery, the blond looked fresh and powerful so in moments like this he knew he did a good job raising him and passing the hat to him

The Godaime dismissed everyone, congratulating them for their good work and giving them a week to rest and recover their strength, the blond was positive he would be meeting with the council so he just needed some time with Jiraiya and Hiruzen.

The young kids thanked and bower before going to their own homes, while the Jounin bowed and disappeared in different kind of techniques while the blond greeted his masters "You'll never get bored with the hat" said Hiruzen as a greet because usually a Kage job was monotonous but in Naruto's case there has been a lot of activity and the future had more things in store for him, fortunately both were sure than he was more than capable to face anything and came out victorious

"We have to discuss some very important things" started Naruto looking to Jiraiya and Hiruzen very seriously, he was going to share most of the talk he had with Itachi because the toad sage would have a main role fighting Akatsuki, these guys were dangerous and he needed all the help he could get

Both senior ninja were shocked because none of them knew about the participation of the masked man in the Uchiha massacre so it when you added the interference in Naruto's birth it made sense to assume he had some inside contact in the village to be able of messing just in key moments of Konoha's history while another things discussed was this Pain character, Jiraiya was practically sure it was Nagato somehow he ended promoting war making Jiraiya's heart shrink and ache

They knew about the two main enemies in the criminal organization and while none of the older men said a word, they thought Itachi should be added to that list while on the other hand Naruto counted on him to fight at his side "Did Onoki ask for your opinion about Suna's downfall?" asked Sarutobi getting a nod from the blond "I feared that…that old little man is trying to imagine your reaction to an invasion" answered Sarutobi to explain his previous question

"Don't worry in the desert there is so many nature's manifestations that I'm almost unstoppable" said Naruto with a lot of self-confidence making the Sandaime think about this, if it was any another young man he would have thought this was a fool bravado with just words, but it was Naruto who was saying this and the blond always had a backup plan, he studied theories and had a method to fight any known ninja with the Raikage being the best proof of this

"By the way...How did you face the Raikage? That man is quite strong" asked the Sandaime with curiosity while Jiraiya was asking the same to himself "Well that was a theory I was trying to resolve…I figured the negative polarity of A's lightning armor and used the same polarity on my body and tonfas so it was just simple physics to see equal poles rejecting each other" confessed Naruto making both old ninjas's eyes go wide, that was quite an impressive reasoning because no one else had figured that before Naruto

….

..

Naruto took his position in the meeting hall, around him there were many ninja clan heads with the surviving elders plus the old Sandaime Hokage then he cleared his throat before saying "I was asked to meet all of you in this moment so please tell me what you want to discuss" and sit on the main seat

"Well Hokage-sama we got news about the events in the Chunin exams and worried about the safety of all of you" said Shukaku taking the lead as the Jounin commander in the village

"Very well, I don't know what you heard but I'll explain the things…" said Naruto before remembering "After the second phase, three of our teams made it into the time limit so when preliminary took place Neji killed one of the Kumo ninjas on a blind rage due to the past events all of us know" told Naruto to the ninjas gathered around before resuming his tale "Between the second and third phase Akatsuki invaded Kumo and stole the Nibi jinchuuriki right under their noses so when you put all of that together with Suna's situation and the gathering of the four Kages in one place you get a recipe for disaster so when the finals started Sasuke fought against a local kunoichi who taunted him with Itachi" explained Naruto making a lot of people nervous because everybody knew how obsessive with revenge on the older Uchiha "In the end the proctor tried to stop him but little Sasuke pierced through his trunk delivering a killing blow so A went mad and try to kill Sasuke; fortunately I was able to get him out of harm´s way and then following my instructions all my ninjas got behind me to stay safe, we exchanged glares with A and then he charged his lariat at me but I blocked his attack before ordering my people to leave" finished his explanation the blond jinchuuriki

There was a moment of silence to let all of them process the news Naruto had told them, some of them were impressed with Naruto's power because A was a very powerful man and little men could say they faced him and were in one piece, his father being one of them

"Is there going to be some kind of punishment for Neji or Sasuke?" asked a concerned Hiashi because while he didn't care for the Uchiha his nephew was his responsibility he owed it to Hizashi

"Well I've been thinking about that and the Chunin promotions so this is my conclusion" started Naruto before taking a pause "Neither Neji or Sasuke will be punished, but if they want to be promoted both of them need help, I can't have a Chunin who would leave his team behind in pursuit of some vengeance despite the justification" explained the first part "And for the promotions, I have decided that all of the teams that completed the second phase in Kumo wil be able to take a special exam in two months it'll be a one on one tournament hosted in the village stadium and there will be no foreign people invited" said the blond getting the other ninja's approval

"Do you have some kind of plan to deal with the other nations?" asked Homura saying the question many people had on their minds but nobody was the courage to ask

"At this moment there is no reason to do something concrete but I'm following the situation with attention and I've taken measures to protect Suna so Iwa wouldn't be able to take it so easily" explained Naruto, he knew it was a difficult topic because nobody wanted another war but if there was some conflict they needed to be prepared

"Do you have information about the responsible for Suna's downfall?" asked one of the fire daimiyo delegates, Naruto was trying to keep that information in a close circle "I have some unconfirmed classified information" was Naruto's answer, so all the people understood he knew it but couldn't share it with them, probably this would require a visit from the fire daimiyo himself

….

..

Naruto was training on mount myoboku, his powers were still developing he was twenty one and most ninja reached their prime at twenty five so he still had room to improve specially after Itachi's news, he needed all the strength he could get because this was a very serious problem

Naruto's sage mode was a joint work with the Kyubi, both of them were friends since the blond always tried to help his fellow jinchuuriki being Fuu and Yagura good examples of that, while Kurama gathered nature's energy Naruto moved and fought, Jiraiya always told him to release the seal but the blond didn't want to take Kurama's power away from him, they were good friends and he already had plenty of power

In sage mode Naruto was able to become a force of nature, his elemental mastery went superb and his physical power rose tenfold, when Fukasaku or Shima tried to fuse with him, they received some Kyubi's chakra and that hurt them, so they had to find another way to use sage mode and the blond came with that, if Kurama was able to gather natural energy he could gather that for him and in the end that worked quite well for both of them

His newest technique was the chakra spheres, they were designed to launch some combined elemental attacks or to protect himself because each of them was an elemental bunshin overcharged with a lot of chakra so they had its own mind, and if normally he could only use one at time in sage mode he was able to cast the five elemental spheres simultaneously and even his clones got some power up from the natural energy Kurama gathered so it was a powerful technique

But that was in the past, the technique had proven useful dealing with the Raikage so it was mastered and was time for another justu…or a completely different kind of training absolutely new for him and all of this was under the old toads watch

…

..

Gai was happy for his students because all of them were on this new project involving the Chunin promotion, he knew the kids were ready to lead some younger minds in simple missions and follow orders in the tougher ones, so he was quite confident in their results

Neji was fighting against Lee, none of them was going at full power, but their spar was quite intense thanks to their physical power, both of them were faster and stronger than their peers and now they knew it, thinking logically aside from each other Uchiha Sasuke was the only able to keep a fight on that level so that got a smile on their faces while they exchanged blows

"That is enough for now my boys" said Gai stoping the genin "You have to keep some of your youth so show the rest of Konoha" added the Jounin looking at his students with pride

…

Yagura was looking at the village through his window, the mists were all around the place as if they were protecting them, after the event between Naruto and A he left Kumogakure with his ninjas and realized his blond friend had gotten quite strong, in their previous fight when he was being controlled the blond Uzumaki had a hard time fighting Isobu's power even his elemental attacks while skilled weren't as powerful as they are now and he never used the Kyubi's power it was all Naruto's

The Mizukage was thinking about some things like his training was to recover his old power but there was some people out there more powerful than him so he should get stronger too for Mizugakure and for Naruto because if something happened he was going to support the blond Hokage no matter what and that thought brought another idea he was pondering from some time ago

"Please bring me Mei and Haku" asked the Mizukage to his assistant before looking to the villages again they were one of the five great shinobi villages and despite all the hate and grief they suffered thanks to that masked man they were standing again as a whole, those two sides were done and now all of them fought for Kiri and for the justice, all the barbaric measures and rites were done leaving place to a new village with room for everyone

…..

..

Naruto was reading some files in his office when an ANBU called to the door so the blond asked the man to enter "Hokage-sama there is two ninjas from Kiri with a letter from the Mizukage" said the masked ninja making Naruto look at him "Let them in!" said quickly because if Yagura sent someone he didn't want to make them wait

The hokage smiled when Terumi Mei and Yuki Haku entered to his office, he offered a chair while the red headed woman handed him the letter

To my friend, Naruto

After akatsuki's actions in Kumogakure I realized we cannot keep waiting for them because if we leave them to do as they please all of our Jichuurikis are going to be ambushed and killed so with that in mind I decided to create an Akatsuki-Response team with two ninjas from your village and another two from mine to train together and travel around the elemental countries in pursuit of this criminal organization

I hope you like the idea you know Mei was the rebel's leader and she is a kage level ninja while Haku was promoted to Chunin six months ago and now I would place him as a special Jounin so as the Akatsuki travels in pairs there should be two Konoha ninjas to fight them two on one

Yagura

Yondaime Mizukage

That letter was unexpected so the blond was really surprised with Yagura's initiative but he couldn't deny it was a good idea, it could even be shown as a sign of strength to beat the village that kidnap Kumogakure's jinchuuriki in their own lands so he just had to pick two ninjas able to fight these guys

Naruto looked at the Kirigakure ninjas and smiled, Mei was always nice to the eye so he couldn't help but feel some kind to physical attraction to the voluminous woman, while Haku was a nice kid with a good heart "Well this was quite the surprise, but I really like the idea so I'm in but I need some time to pick the ninjas from Konoha so I'll place you in some hotel if that is alright with both of you?" answered Naruto getting the approbation of the two foreign ninjas

With that said Naruto went with them for the hotel accommodations for the two Kiri's ninjas just for courtesy and the fact that one of them was so pretty had nothing to do with that…

Kakashi was watching Sasuke train from some distance because he didn't want to alert or push him after everything that happened with the team, the copy ninja tried to make them create some bonds so strengthen Sasuke's relationship with the village but Akado Kuro said he just wanted to be a genin and the was just because he was afraid of Neji or Sasuke who could kill someone and don't feel even the slight of remorse while Sakura despite wanting to be close to her Sasuke-kun realized she wasn't meant to be a frontal combat ninja so she entered to the hospital to train as a medic ninja

The Uchiha was alone again and with team seven disbanded Kakashi was sent on another missions according to his power level, Naruto knew about the risk of leaving Sasuke on isolation but he wanted for Kakashi to do something for someone else he could ask Naruto to take care of him or he could do that himself but he needed some kind of commitment because he was too used to live in the past and be a passive person in the present

…

..

Some days later Naruto gathered four ninjas in his office, the first two were Mei and Haku from Kiri, the other two were an ANBU called Tenzo and Kabuto "Tenzo take your mask off and for this mission your name will be Yamato, Kabuto is going to be the medic of the team but he's quite skilled in hand to hand combat so don't underestimate him, Mei'll lead this team and the first training will be a match against me" stated Naruto surprising the curvy woman who didn't think they would be able to spar with the Hokage himself

The five of them went to the private training ground Naruto had then all of them got ready "in the hypothetical case of a fight you'll divide into pairs two of you will fight one of the Akatsuki while the other two will face the remaining ninja so to try to emulate this Mei and Haku will face me and then will be Yamato and Kabuto's turn" explained Naruto because he expected a better teamwork between locals and with some time they would be able to adapt better to each other battle styles

Mei stood next to Haku while the blond Hokage Naruto Uzumaki faced them "Feel free to start whenever you're ready" said Naruto making a one handed ram seal and a chakra sphere appeared so both Kiri ninjas exchanged some looks "Hiding in mist technique" said Mei in a quiet voice casting a dense mist that reduced drastically the visibility, but Naruto just moved a hand to dissipate it but in that moment Haku emerged from an ice mirror placed behind Naruto throwing him some senbon needles; the jinchuuriki didn't need to make any seal to surround himself woth a gust of wind that deflected the projectiles but Mei tries to get the upper hand using a Fire Release: Great Fireball to ignite said wind

The blond was saved for the chakra sphere that shot a powerful blast of water to extinguish the fire when Haku started the second assault this time throwing ice shards, but fortunately for the master of nature ice was easy to manipulate to he was able to control the ice blocks and melt them to water under his control, and when Mei used her Boil release the water was an excellent shield from the corrosive and hot mist before doing a wind enhanced jump

Naruto was able to stay on the air some moments using some kind of wind based propulsion but the downside of his ability was that in normal mode he could only use one element at time the good side was that there were only three people that were aware of this his two main senseis and his lifetime friend Itachi, so while a simultaneous attack from Mei and Haku would give him trouble, they always attacked with coordination one after the other, never at the same time

Naruto started falling when Mei's boil techniques were close so he used his control over water to block the attack and try to hit Haku but he was quite far in the air and the weird kid was very fast so he got to the ground again, dodged a lava blast and used his earth manipulation to trap Haku when he emerged from one of his mirrors; Then Mei tried to help his partner but Naruto shot her a lightning bolt and she had to jump away for her safety so she gathered her chakra and attacked with a powerful fire jutsu or would have if wasn't for the chakra sphere that got her completely wet and canceled the fire technique before the Hokage put a hand of her abdomen and released a light discharge "My victory" said with a cocky smile making Mei blush a little

The blond released Haku and all of them gathered with the other two Konoha ninja before Naruto gave his insight "That was a good fight and while none of us was going at full power I think you have a nice coordination and your styles complement each other because Haku is fast and precise while you are powerful and resourceful" was Naruto's assessment "It's our turn now" said Kabuto

Mei and Haku kept some distance for the next fight; it was Yamato and Kabuto against Naruto "You can start" said Naruto before making a different chakra sphere

Yamato was the first to move when he used an earth release ninjutsu to trap Naruto into a pit, but the blond used a win enhanced jump to get away letting Kabuto used that moment to get closer so he tried to engage the Uzumaki in a physical combat but using his electrified tonfas he realized it was a bad idea especially when the Hokage hit him and he tried to block with a kunai but the small weapon had no chance against a heavier one like the tonfa so it was Yamato's turn to rescue his partner using a wood release ninjutsu surprising Mei and Haku, it was a tree whose branches tried to hold Naruto but the blond started to spin and created a tornado around himself while the sphere gave him the fire to make a dangerous set up because Naruto was flying ten meters high over a tornado on flames to the pint that even a normal gust of wind was on fire making the tree useless in some seconds Yamato tried to extinguish the fire with a water release technique but he lacked the power to suppress the elemental combination so in the end both had to give up

Naruto stopped the attack and got back to the ground "Your opening move is good but you need more work to fight together; as an advice I would suggest Kabuto to use another weapon in case you face someone like Kisame or Sasori who are too dangerous to fight empty handed and Yamato you need to know where Kabuto is going to be to cover him and corner your enemy but these are details you can work with time" said Naruto giving them his assessment

After that the five got together again "Well I'm happy with your performance, I'll give you a month to train here then you are going to visit Yagura for his opinion, if you need any help all you have to do is ask and the only mission parameter I'll give you is this" said finally Naruto taking a small scroll and giving it to Kabuto "This is a special storage scrolls that contains a messenger toad, if you are overwhelmed for the enemy whoever it is from the Akatsuki to another Kage or if you face Itachi Uchiha my order is to open this and ask the toad to summon me…are we clear?" was the final question from Naruto who got affirmative nods from the four ninjas, he was the last resort chance for the fights and while he couldn't tell them he was wishing to fight these guys

….

..

While Konoha and Kiri were making preparations to fight Akatsuki there was another party taking some measures too; that was Onoki who was looking at the map on his wall with predatory eyes '_mmm this is promising_' thought looking at the piece of paper

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_Please leave your thoughts _

_See you next time!_


	7. Chapter 7

Hello guys, I'm sorry for taking so long but I was very busy this week so this just came out from the "Microsoft Word" (might be some errors)

I hope you like it and leave your thoughts about it

For **OuroborosKai** I realized I didn't explained it but there is a reason for that thing with Kimimaro's loyalties

Have a nice week!

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**Chapter 7**

It had been two months since the last Chunin exams and Konoha organized an exhibition on his own even his some people accused them of sabotage the normal exams, they could say it was a response to A's interference so Naruto had everything under control

This time there would be only people from Konoha or Hi no kuni in the stadium no nobles or rich people from other places to show the strength of Konoha's next generation; The proctor this time was Kakashi because he would be able to control Neji or Sasuke in case some of them tried to kill some of the other competitors

The first fight was announced between Sasuke Uchiha and Chouji Akimichi so both kids went to the field and after greeting each other Kakashi ordered to start; Sasuke was obviously faster than Chouji and while the big boned kid wasn't that effective without the Nara and Yamanaka counterpart he was a heavy hitter so he just needed one or two hits to win but he was going to be very careful and smart to land those hits

Sasuke jumped to kick him, but Chouji used his partial body expansion to enlarge his right arm and toss him aside with a very rough landing but the Uchiha got on his feet and tried a different approach making some hand seals before shouting "Fire Release: Great Fireball" and the dangerous flames went towards Chouji who used the Body expansion technique to enlarge his whole body and using the Meat tank to use the spinning as a shield from the fire and to push Sasuke

But the Uchiha was able to predict even Chouji's spins thanks to the Sharingan so he used a lightning enhanced kunai to stab the Akimichi and force him to drop the transformation then he charged again but much to his surprise the fatty kid took one of the Akimichi's special pills so he power rose and caused a temblor with a hit from his hand making Sasuke to drop on the ground again and then another partial expansion to enlarge his hand and put the Uchiha against the ground with a force bigger than he could lift on his best day

The strategy was good and would have worked two months ago but now Sasuke had another tricks under his sleeve and covered his had with lightning chakra forcing Chouji to release him with a painful discharge and the next step was throwing some kunai around the place forcing Chouji to retreat to a specific place to activate a trap with ninja wire trough the kunai holes to electrify him or that would have been the idea if Kakashi hadn't cut the wire declaring Sasuke as the winner

"I think Chouji showed good potential and combat effectiveness" said Hiruzen to Naruto and Jiraiya who were in the main position of the stadium as the maximum authorities

"I agree…if this wasn't a match between ninjas from the same village he could have pressed him to death in that hold" added Naruto to second Sarutobi's assessment

"Well that Sasuke kid is quite the star I think he's more than ready" commented Jiraiya getting approval nods from the two other men because with that victory Sasuke practically got a promotion thanks to the trap's set up and the preparation and anticipation that showed while Chouji was able to show good Chunin abilities too "This seems like an excellent idea Naruto" added finally the only remaining sanin in Konoha

"Now it's Shikamaru and TenTen turn" shouted Kakashi calling said genin to the central field so after some moments both were in position despite the Nara's complaints about the gender of his rival and said rival answer '_the kid is right…this is troublesome_' thought Kakashi before giving the order to begin the combat

Unlike Konoha's surroundings the battle field was just a place with some ground and lots of room to cast ninjutsu and while last time there were trees and a pond this time someone probably forgot them

Shikamaru knew he has a difficult time because just like Shino he wasn't a frontal fighter, he was more like a supportive ninja who helped another man to deliver the finishing blows but this time he had to show something or he would be sent to another exams again and again until he got promoted '_that's is way more troublesome than fighting this girl_' thought the lazy Nara

Tenten took a scroll and summoned a great amount of kunai knives shooting them to Shikamaru's direction forcing him to avoid the weapons; the kunoichi knew something about the Nara's techniques so she had to keep away from Shikamaru but the problem was that one of his abilities was using chakra wires to control her weapons and that didn't worked so far so it was a great price for her safety

Shikamaru tried his shadow imitation technique but his shadow's projection wasn't able to reach the kunoichi who even jumped backwards putting more distance between them so the Nara took two kunai with paper bombs attached to them and aimed for the girl who jumped away to stay safe from the explosions

The Nara tried that tactic again and the result was the same but then he rushed to the stadium wall and running on that he tried to get closer to the girl who ran in the opposite direction until she wasn't able to move "Shadow imitation success" said Shikamaru surprising Tenten who just now was able to see the shadow trend coming from behind her '_so he cornered me into the wall's shadow and then used the shadow of the wall to reach me unnoticed_' realized the kunoichi looking at the field "Well it's a good thing a came prepared then" said Gai's student before smiling and start shaking her head undoing her hair but dropping three flash bombs on the ground making a very bright light fill the place

Shikamaru stayed on the stadium wall but Tenten was closer to the center of the field '_She's clever…those bombs make enough light to disrupt her own shadow and release her from the technique_' analyzed Shikamaru

"It's time to end this!" said Tenten thinking the flash bomb was only a one time trick so it was time to bring the big guns "Twin Rising Dragons" shouted before putting two storage scrolls on the ground before they rose with Tenten who began shooting an endless amount of thrown weapons

Shikamaru thought it was wind of a joke from fate but the same distance Tenten was so adamant to keep between them was now protecting him from the quick impact with all those weapons before he had more time and space to dodge them and while he was trying to figure a way to get out of that situation Naruto was thinking along the same line '_Despite Shikamaru's weakness with long range fighters in this time it is like a two sides weakness with Tenten having the short range distance so none of them can fight at his best…precisely a good way to show what they are capable of in though situations_' pondered the Hokage watching the genin's fight

Tenten had the precaution of shooting unchained weapons because if she used a real wire or chain Shikamaru would use it to extend his own shadow but she suddenly found herself frozen and the worst part was his opponent wasn't even doing the stupid hand seal so he could attack her easily "I think you know the position you are into so I'll ask you to give up" said Shikamaru with a threatening trench knife

'_That was smart_' thought Naruto while Sarutobi repeated the last move in his mind '_Tenten is a resourceful girl but she needs to be more careful when she's attacking because she couldn't see Shikamaru with those spins and he used the same knife than my son to trap her_' concluded Hiruzen after the match "Shikamaru is clearly as smart as you expect from Shikaku's son so I vote for promote him" stated Jiraiya getting approving words from the rest

"Now it's Neji and Lee's turn" said Kakashi calling the remaining students of his eternal rival and Lee looked as energetic as always while Neji looked at him with a superiority air without knowing the real extent of Lee's power

Both kids stood on guard, Lee was happy because just before starting Gai-sensei had said this battle would prove he could be a splendid ninja using just taijutsu so he could use all his power to show Neji and the whole village the result of his training, usually Gai wouldn't be so fool to let Lee use all that power against Neji but he trusted in Kakashi to stop things before they got too dangerous "Fight" said Kakashi and before Neji could blink he saw Lee on his face "Leaf Whirlwind" said the green dressed ninja kicking Neji very hard

The Hyuga got serious and turned his Byakugan on because he didn't remember his teammate had that speed "Were you holding back in our spars or missions?" asked a serious Neji "Maybe but this training had some restrictions I've just been authorized to ignore this time" answered Lee who didn't want to make his teammate suspicious after this test was over "I hope that helps you to put a fight" said Neji with a cocky smile

Neji moved very fast into Lee's guard with the intent of hitting his chakra points but the Konoha's Beautiful Green Wild Beast dodged the strikes and went for a lateral kick that Neji blocked and thanks to his eyes was able to counterattack hitting some chakra points in Lee's leg but the problem for him was that Lee's chakra coils were so little that he could close all his points and the bowl haired kid would keep getting up

Lee moved in a blur surprising Neji when he got at his feet and gave him an upper kick that sent him flying but when he tried to trap Neji he used the Kaiten in midair throwing his teammate away

It was an excellent fight between two taijutsu specialists because while Neji had technique and versatility Lee's speed and strength was second to none in genin ranks so they traded blow per blow for a while because the usually quick disable from the Hyuga style wasn't enough here; Neji wouldn't try to kill Lee aiming to his organs so he had to use pressure points another branch of the Juuken while Lee was trying to find any crack in Neji's defenses

Suddenly Lee took some distance and he started to gather some energy at this point Neji had two choices before him he could wait and see all his power's extent or he could interrupt him in order to avoid greater damage but that would mean he considered him a threat and that was against everything he believed (fate)

What Neji trusted the most were his eyes so he believed in his Byakugan telling him Lee's power was rising too much so he dashed to him using a Juuken strike to the chest that forced him to stop his channeling letting him open just the first chakra gate then both kids took some distance before the final charge between them

Both ran to each other and thrown the final strike so Lee tried to kick Neji while the Hyuga aimed a powerful Juuken strike to the bowl haired kid many ninjas even older than them were surprised to see their speed and ability but in the last instant Kakashi appeared between both of them grabbing Lee's leg and Neji's forearm before doing a light twist and tossing them to opposite directions

What Gai, Naruto, Jiraiya and most senior ninjas were able to see was Lee's leg almost touching Neji's face while the Hyuga's palm was practically burning Lee's clothes before Kakashi stopped the match

The jounin's decision was to declare that fight as a draw while Konoha's authorities discussed about the next match because it was Ino Yamanaka's turn but she wasn't strong enough to beat one of the winners so it was Naruto who told Kakashi to announce a triple threat fight between Ino, Chouji and Tenten

"The final match will be a three way fight with Ino Yamanaka, Chouji Akimichi and TenTen all against each other" stated Kakashi getting cheers and approving shouts from the stands

Said ninjas got in the field in a triangle-like position each one was looking to both opponents with the corner of his eye, but when Kakashi gave the signal it was Tenten who rushed the fight; she knew the others were teammates so she assumed there could be some kind of alliance against her so she had to take one of them out and shot some dangerous spears towards Ino who was quite frightened with the weapons choice

Meanwhile Chouji transformed into the Meat-tank form to roll over Tenten so the kunoichi had to stop her initial attack and went for melee weaponry to face Chouji leaving herself exposed "Mind-transfer technique" said Ino making a square hand sign with both her hands, Chouji was looking a little confused because usually they would wait for Ino's or Shimamaru's technique to hit the enemy but now Ino was the enemy and he wasn't really sure if he was able to attack her, but the blond had another agenda and using the hilt of Tenten's sword knocked Chouji out before surrendering the match to herself, Genma stated Ino as the winner of the match and while the Yamanaka girl was happy with the accomplishment none of the main ninja leaders was too exited about that match

"Well at least we know the Ino-Shika-Cho formation has good cohesion…but that kid is a little soft for my Chunin's standards" concluded Jiraiya after watching the last match while Sarutobi agreed with him and the youngest of the three was still looking at the match

"It was unfortunate for Tenten but she had very little chance against these two but I'll have to speak with Gai about spread her abilities to the next exams" stated finally Naruto looking at the weapon mistress

…

In the end Sasuke Uchiha, Shikamaru Nara and Hyuga Neji were promoted to Chunin; Sasuke's promotion was earned through prior preparation and having hidden aces on his sleeve while Shikamaru's was thanks to his sharp mind and Neji's was for his combat skills and the overcome of the fate curse, because Naruto and Sarutobi saw in the last moments of the fight he acknowledged Lee as a threat on his level and tried to disable him and that was a good judgment he wouldn't be able to do six months ago

Neji and Shikamaru celebrated the promotion with their respective families and Hiashi saw this as the chance to give him Hizashi's last message, that letter opened Neji's eyes because he was ready for truth now and reading that his father chose to sacrifice himself for the clan and the village wellbeing put peace on his hearth

Shikamaru on the other side wasn't that happy because he knew with the new range came more responsibilities but after the invasion and the current tension between the great ninja villages he wanted to be able to take the decisions and be able to protect his friends

Sasuke on the other side didn't have a family to celebrate with so he was quite surprised when he opened his house's door and saw the Hokage on his couch "What's the meaning of this?" asked a very confused Sasuke who didn't expect to see Itachi's best friend on his house "I think you earned some truth so please take seat" answered a very serious Naruto getting Sasuke's full attention "This is one of Konoha's deepest secrets but your clan was trying a coup" said Naruto making Sasuke's eye mouth open in shock "Your father Fugaku and some elders in your clan were powerthirsty so a masked man who claims to be Uchiha Madara played with them filling their minds with plans and arrogance so they ordered Itachi enter the ANBU to spy the village and the Hokage's potential response to this attack but they underestimated your brother's love for Konoha so in the end he was a spy for the Hokage to tell him about your clan" added Naruto explaining the full situation to Sasuke "The real problem started when some of the council elders got word about this because Danzou tried to make a profit from the situation and ordered Itachi to kill the whole clan to protect the village while Sarutobi and me were looking for a peaceful solution but your brother lost hope in the clan when they accused him of Shisui's murder and knocked me out to carry on this last order sparing only you" explained the blond Hokage making Sasuke's tears come out "he loves you even more than the village so he asked Sarutobi to protect you from Danzou or foreign threats… but when I woke up and realized the whole thing I killed Danzou for his treachery and fired the elders when I got the hat" finished his explanation giving some time to Sasuke to process all of this

The young Uchiha was pondering about everything "Why did Itachi say that thing about hating him?" asked Sasuke a little confused because now it seemed he sacrificed himself for the village as a very loyal ninja but when they met he didn't leave that impression on Sasuke "Because Itachi always tries to be a martyr and he wanted for you to kill him avenging the clan and erasing all evidence about the Uchiha's treason" was Naruto's honest answer

Sasuke was thinking about it because the Hokage was one of the people who knew Itachi the most and he could feel he was being honest "Why do you tell me this now?" asked the young Sasuke again "Because in the last chunin's exams Itachi and I talked and I kind of ordered him to follow a new plan and that doesn't end with you killing him" said the jinchuuriki before taking a breath "I want for you to train as hard as you can to become strong because there is going to be a world war sometime soon and Akatsuki is going to use it as a distraction to strike so I need Itachi and you to protect Konoha while I deal with the enemies" confessed Naruto making Sasuke smile because he would be appreciated on his own and not as Itachi's brother

After the speech Naruto left Sasuke to think about it and left his house happy with that outcome because he didn't like Itachi's end of the story he believed he could make things work for everyone and he would use every ounce of his power to do so

…

..

It had been three months since Konoha's special exams when the blond Godaime Hokage got an expected letter, it was from the Grass village's leader asking for help to protect themselves from the Iwa's ninjas they spotted though spies and wide patrols; Naruto knew Iwa was going to attack sometime soon and it would probably be a small village close to Konoha to test their response and that led him in this position…What to do about this?

Jiraiya was away in one of his travels but he had a toad summon him "Hi sensei…I wanted to ask you to watch over the village in my absence" said Naruto surprising the toad sanin before giving him the letter "Are you going there by yourself?" asked the super pervert worried about his godson

"I'm taking my old team as bodyguards" answered Naruto because he trusted a lot in his kids and knew they were able to lift their own weight if things got hard but he was quite confidant on his own abilities "Well if you think that is the best course of action I'll keep Konoha's safe in your place" assured Jiraiya before someone entered through the door "I would like to join the team for this mission" stated Sarutobi Hiruzen in a formal brown robe with a visible battle armor under it

"Were you spying on us sensei?" asked a surprised Jiraiya who wouldn't expect that kind of behavior from the old professor "That wasn't needed I knew Fewks when he arrived to the village" answered referring to the legendary eagle from Grass country that was known as the fastest bird in the elemental countries. Naruto and Jiraiya were his students so both of them knew about his feelings because Sarutobi thought a ninja's legacy was his death and for that reason it wasn't honorable dying from age in a bed while he could die protecting a whole village from a foreign invasion "I don't like the idea but I can't deny you that right…well welcome to the team" answered an unhappy Naruto because he knew Sarutobi was looking to die on that mission '_I'll not let you die on my watch old man_' promised himself the blond Hokage before asking and ANBU to gather his students for the mission

After everybody knew about the mission details and Konoha's authorities were informed about Naruto's departure the five ninjas began their travel

….

.

In the grass village the situation was quite dire because their scouts found about a big army coming from Iwagakure in three days' time so they sent a letter asking for Konoha's help but they never expected for the third and fifth Hokages to come and they were with some promising clan heirs being these Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame

So both Konoha's leaders took command of Grass's troops waiting for the enemy's arrival Naruto and Sarutobi took the front position because Naruto wanted something very little people was willing to do before him; by taking a direct approach he was able to kill a great number of enemies so he wanted to force the Tsuchikage to came out to stop wasting his ninjas because usually Kage-level ninja were able to slay thousands of subordinate ninjas unless there was some S-rank between them and there was another risk in the stamina of the first kage on the field because if he tired himself before his enemy equal came to the battlefield he wouldn't be able to fight properly but Naruto's stamina was like no one else thanks to the Kyubi and the sage mode

Naruto and Sarutobi were in the front line, the melee grass ninjas were next with the long range specialist and in the back lines the support ninjas and his team the blond was reading himself for the battle but suddenly a black pattern appeared on the ground to his feet "No…No-NO!" he shouted because he knew what that meant so he looked at Sarutobi who had the most peaceful smile he ever saw on his face "NO-" shouted one last time before disappearing in a smoke cloud

"What was that Sandaime-sama?" asked a Grass ninjas to the legendary Hiruzen Sarutobi "An unexpected reverse summoning but don't worry because that ninjas will not be enough to cross this line" stated the third Hokage with a confident smile before he was surrounded by Naruto's team "What is the meaning of this?" asked Sarutobi

"Hokage-sama asked us to protect you" answered Hinata without looking at the old man's face "Well let's see if you can keep up with me" said Hiruzen back with a grin "Summoning technique" said the professor "What's going on Sarutobi?" asked the monkey king Enma "We're protecting an allied village from Iwagakure's forces so this is the last time I'll call upon you" confessed the experienced ninja crossing a meaningful look with the summon who transformed in the adamantine staff

With Naruto's and the grass leader help they set a wide trap field but that was just to keep the local ninjas happy because as expected Iwa's ninjas attack begun with a heavy landscape makeover with an amazing number of earth release techniques

….

In a very far location Naruto appeared in front of Kabuto and the Akatsuki-response team and he had the angriest face any of them had seen before "What happened? Where are we?" asked Naruto coldly so Kabuto just pointed behind the Hokage making him turn back and see a pair of Akatsuki, it was Kisame and Itachi and all of them were in the middle of Mizu no kuni if all the sea around them was some indication

"Itachi stop playing…the old Sandaime is dying somewhere else and I'm done waiting for Akatsuki's move" stated Naruto surprising everybody even the Uchiha so he took out his tonfas and looked at Kisame "Any last words?" asked Naruto with a serious voice tone; he knew what he said to the Akatsuki Response team about Itachi but they had the worst timing ever and this man was going to pay "Heh-" Kisame was going to laugh but a hard hit on his face sent him very far away

'_It can't be…I barely saw him move_' thought Mei watching that exchange between the Hokage and the mist's missing ninja because she was S rank on her own so she was supposed to be able of fighting guys like this

'_I had never seen Naruto so angry_' thought Itachi who was a little off after the loss of his cover as an Akatsuki spy '_I don't know what's happening with the Sandaime but it must be something serious if he's so upset_' reflexed thinking about what the Hokage said '_But Kisame is one of his worst opponents in the whole world so this is like a real test for him_' realized finally because Naruto was a ninjutsu specialist but Kisame neutralized most of ninjutsu


	8. Chapter 8

Hello everybody! I'm sorry for taking so long to write but for some time I didn't get any mail from Fanfiction so I thought the fic was kind of abandoned but after a whole week without any notification I discovered Gmail was sending them to the spam folder and checked all the new chapters from my followed stories and your feedback on this story

Thanks to all the people who have favorited/reviewed/followed Konoha's heir!

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**Chapter 8**

The next time he was seen his face was broken beyond repair to the point he was lucky to be alive so he had no choice but fuse with Samehada adopting the Shark-shape too early for his own good "Heheheh it seems you will give me a good workout" said Kisame with a cocky grin "Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave" shouted the Kiri ninja scaring Mei

The ex-rebel's leader had seen the shark ninja fighting before and he was terrifying because he used your own power against you so she didn't know what to do when he tried to fill the whole place with an incredible large water technique but when she looked carefully she saw Itachi closer to the fighters than her and he seemed calm and collected

What Kisame didn't expect was Naruto just needed to move his hands to control his water so all the water waves gathered in a water sphere that rose in the sky while the Kiri ninja looked with caution but the Hokage opened his fingers and said sphere turned into thousands of water needles and they drop on Kisame, threatening the Akatsuki ninja who had to hide inside a water prison technique to avoid the lethal attack but in this move he lost sight of Naruto who dashed towards him striking in the exact moment he dropped the technique throwing him away again but this time Kisame wasn't so damaged

Naruto knew he had a major handicap because he couldn't use his elemental proficiency against Kisame but his opponent couldn't use his usual fighting style so they would have a more physical match and while the Hokage had the speed the missing ninja had the strength

Kisame on the other hand felt hard pressed because this kid was quite skilled and forced him to drop his usual style; Naruto appeared from his left side so he swung his arm hitting the blond with the blade on his forearm making him dispel and then he felt a movement from behind so he was able to block with the another forearm-blade the attack from Naruto's tonfa but this time the hit came with a nasty surprise because when he touched the metal he felt an electrical discharge like a painful sting that surprised him and let the blond kick him away

'_I was right so even if he can absorb my chakra the electricity still obeys physics laws and if I release some electricity when I hit him the broken circuit will give him a discharge_' realized Naruto happy with that little success before dodging a punch from his rival who tried to get on the offensive to avoid those discharges but the blond was faster and could harm him even blocking

Kisame tried to overwhelm Naruto with some kind of tackle but the blond wasn't a novice with years of sparring with Itachi, Sarutobi and Jiraiya you tended to be an excellent fighter so he aimed for the only weak place most people had…the legs; the blond hit one of the Mist's ninja legs making him fall and gave him a hammer hit on the back but in that moment a big shark came out of nowhere probably a summon and tried to bite his arm, tried was the keyword because Naruto was able to replace himself with one of his tonfas leaving it to save himself '_He was willing to take a direct hit to cover that shark's attack_' thought Naruto after taking some distance

Kisame got up thanking samehada for the enhanced healing it gave him but it wasn't endless and the sword's chakra supply was near to end so he had to do something soon or he would die besides that surprise shark wouldn't work again and in the end the only positive side of that move was taking one of the weapons of the bratty Hokage "I'm sick of you smart-ass!" shouted an annoyed Kisame surprising Itachi because usually he was very happy to have a tough fight but this one seemed too complex for his taste because he was forced to fight without using his main advantages

"You are right I remembered I must kill you soon" said Naruto before closing his eyes and then the next thing all the other ninjas saw was Kisame's head exploding backwards

'_I didn't see anything_' thought Mei and the whole Akatsuki response team looking at the fight and realizing this could be out of their reach or not depending on the level of the others Akatsuki compared to Naruto

'_I couldn't anticipate that move…he's clearly gotten stronger_' assessed Itachi with happiness because he believed the blond would be able to fight Pain or Tobi with his current level

'_Thanks for the natural energy Kurama your timing was perfect_' thanked Naruto to his bijou who gathered the energy for his sage mode after retrieving his tonfa from Kisame's corpse and then he turned to the four ninjas "Mei take Kisame and Samehada to Yagura and don't tell absolutely nobody besides him about Itachi's presence" ordered Naruto with a serious tone that made everybody get nervous for the previous display

The special team led by Terumi Mei sealed Kisame's body and his sentient sword on different scrolls before leaving for the hidden mist village so after some moments it was just Itachi and Naruto there "You blew my cover" stated Itachi with a neutral look "Well if you don't have another job I have a vacant position as root leader…are you interested?" replied Naruto to his friend before offering a handshake

After that encounter both youngsters went to Konoha because Itachi's position would be extremely hidden and root quarters had some high security so he couldn't just send them a memo with the news about their leader and even at his best he would need at least four days to arrive on the battlefield but that was too much time

On their way they talked about many things letting Naruto forget about his worries for some time and remember those good old times and just from that moment the blond was absolutely sure with his decision

…

..

On another battlefield an army of two thousand Iwa shinobi was trying to invade the grass village but the five hundred ninjas from Grass were led by Hiruzen Sarutobi who let himself enjoy surprising team eight because the way the old Sandaime fought was incredible he casted earth and fire release techniques as if he had an endless chakra supply while any enemy ninja caught in his personal space was victim of the adamantine staff that demolished any ninja that faced the old monkey

Hinata was the only that could see him while Shino and Kiba followed his body with their other senses because his chakra was quite easy to follow but they were astonished with his power, speed and strength because they wouldn't be able of fighting an enemy like that and that made them realize something else…Sandaime-sama believed Naruto was even stronger than himself '_If the third has this power…How powerful is our sensei?_' was the common thought from the clan heirs

Sarutobi was having the fight of his life because he didn't have to hold back at all and enjoyed the fight using all his chakra without caring about his own life but that wasn't just some belief of him that was a man with a fulfilled life '_I don't have to hold back to protect my ninjas from my techniques and I can even die leaving Konoha in good hands_' was Sarutobi's premise

Grass's ninjas were very motivated fighting with a legend like the third Hokage because the man was an incredible force to the point all his movements were made with great accuracy and power so they had the inspiration and courage to win this fight at his side without care about the numbers because next to that man anything was possible

"We're really just a bunch of kids compared to men like these" said Kiba getting the approval of his teammates "We would just get in the third's way" added Hinata in a sad speech because all of their egos got to the ground because as promising Chunin they had a lot of future but in the great scheme of things they were just a bunch of naïve kids "Don't feel so sad because everybody started at our level even the legends like the third or our sensei" said Shino trying to lift their hopes because they didn't have so much experience and were just starting their careers in the ninja world

"Let's try to help them" concluded Kiba who wanted his own share of enemies to brag at his return before getting his teammates's approval and joining the fight

…..

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When Itachi got to Konoha he had to fight some tears but they entered through a hidden passage on a pond that led them to the ROOT quarters and despite the intention of root's ninjas they would never attack someone escorted by their leader

Naruto gathered all the ROOT recruits in Konoha to tell them about their new leader but he was quite careful because he said to them Itachi was their new leader so they had to obey him but the maximum authority was still him as the Hokage and while they didn't have to inform him about their operations, if the blond ordered something they had to follow his words over Itachi's

The Uchiha was satisfied with the deal because he knew Naruto wouldn't give him the authority to undermine his position and he was happy with the ability to protect Konoha from the shadows but the only direct order Naruto gave him was Danzo wronged all this men but they are highly skilled shinobi so I put them in your care but you cannot put anyone else under this kind of training…ever and after that speech he thanked and congratulated all of them for their outstanding job

When Naruto arrived alone in Konoha some highly placed ninjas were worried because he went to a war zone and came back alone but he explained the situation and in the end they could celebrate the death of an Akatsuki member. In the end there was nothing they could do but waiting for their return

But they didn't know about was going on so when three days later Hinata, Kiba and Shino came back with a somber expression there was nothing else to be said; the young chunins gave Naruto two different scrolls one of them was the battle report from Grass's new leader and the other was a storage scroll with the dead body of the Hokage with the longest period in Konoha's history

The entire village was in mourning and the black color was everywhere; Sarutobi's coffin was on the village's stadium because practically all the village wanted to say good bye to his body so the current Hokage and student of the third said some words "Many people know Hiruzen Sarutobi for the great man, ninja and leader he was but for those that shared more time with him we'll know that as long as there is one person in Konoha believing in the will of fire his soul will not die. All of us know he was one of the greatest ninjas and humans ever so we have to cherish those moments when he was with us and mourn for his death but don't dwell in the past because the king of Konoha also known as the next generation need us; we can be sad and cry for the man we lost but we must compose ourselves to don't lose what he gave his life for" and with that the whole town applauded his speech

After that they left the rest of the village to say good bye but on another place Naruto asked Jiraiya something else "I need three days to prepare for the battle with Iwa" and the sanin assured him he would keep watching the village and organizing Sarutobi's funeral

….

..

"Are you sure he asked me to go there?" asked Utakata to one of the Chunin that gave him the message "Yes, Kimimaro-san asked me to deliver you the message he said he needed your help with his training" answered the other ninja "I haven't seen him in a while…he must have been training" said the jinchuuriki to himself before going for the pointed training ground

The problem was that training ground was very far from the center of the village but it was something expected thinking about Kimimaro's great power over his bloodline so he walked to the place but found nobody there "Kimimaro! Are you here?" shouted the six tails jinchuuriki before a man appeared from the ground "I'm afraid kimimaro's not here but I'll take care of you" answered the masked man before putting his hand on Utakata's shoulder and disappearing in the air with his technique

….

..

It was the third day after Sarutobi's funeral and Jiraiya was walking through the village when a very important person was in front of the stone memorial between the many flowers and candles the villagers left for the third Hokage "Tsunade you actually came?" asked a surprised Jiraiya who wasn't expecting to see his old teammate inside of Konoha

"I arrived two days ago but I wasn't able to see his face…he would be too ashamed of me" answered the beautiful Senju with a sad expression on his face so Jiraiya didn't even need his experience to know how she was feeling "How are you?" asked she surprising the white haired man again "From the three of us you were the closest to him" added the remaining sanin

Jiraiya was stunned because without Naruto around nobody stopped to ask him how he felt with the death of the Sandaime and while he was used to show a good face for the rest of the people but on the inside he was tired and sad…this was the first time he felt old "Would you like to talk around a bottle?" asked the super pervert getting Tsunade's approval

…

At the end of that day Jiraiya hasn't appeared in the office so when Naruto got there he was alone but that didn't mean he didn't know what to do because now he was more ready than ever '_Take care of our village Itachi_' thought the blond before gathering his gear and reading himself for the fight there was to come

The blond Hokage called many ninja to leave at midnight he got one thousand ninja being most of them long range fighters and some medics or support-class ninja he gave them a speech because they would be protecting the Grass village while he fought against the main group. When Naruto's students asked him why there were not selected to go in the mission he told them now he couldn't hold back this time and he didn't want anyone close to him

That night some hours before leaving Jiraiya appeared in Naruto's house "Where were you?" asked the blond Hokage who was looking through some seals "I was recovering some lost time" answered the toad sanin "Are you leaving for Grass?" asked Jiraiya this time

"Yes, but that is not important at this moment…I have many things to tell you" said the blond gathering some chakra and making Jiraiya's eyes go wide because this would be a day of surprises and revelations

At midnight Naruto left Konoha leading a group of one thousand ninja plus his old team that begged him to come because they wanted to be close just in case something bad could happen to him; all of them knew there was a war beginning and they were going to be part of it but the Uzumaki jinchuuriki had the ability to make them all believe in him and put their hopes on his shoulders

And while they were running most of they thought about their important people and why they couldn't let Iwa got the Grass village because that was the first step before attacking Konoha directly and that meant a world war because the Mist would help the Leaf and probably the Cloud would take Rock's side making it a hard battle but if he crushed any force they sent and forced the Tsuchikage out he could finish all of this before it happened

It was three in the morning when Naruto and his ninjas arrived to grass village where the new leader a young Jounin told him the first of the Rock's battalions had two thousand ninja and the third Hokage died fighting next to the five hundred local ninjas but this time the enemy sent five thousand ninjas and the Grass just had eight hundred counting the survivors from the first fight "This are the orders for everyone protect the village and attack only those that get behind me" stated Naruto with a determined face

It was a dark night so Naruto had no problem '_Kurama I need your help_' asked the Hokage and some seconds later he could feel the natural energy filling his whole body and after that he flew over the village surprising everybody…but that wasn't the most shocking thing because if anyone could have seen his face that person would have seen a Sharingan eye with a three pointed star on each eye

"Blaze Release: Trap Field" said Naruto in a low voice using the dark night as a cover for his attack surprising the Iwa's ninjas who never saw the flames coming so in a matter of seconds hundred died to the Amaterasu flames that Naruto was now able to control "Wake up you damn Iwa's shinobi this is the fifth Hokage speaking and I demand for you to bring the Tsuchikage here" shouted Naruto flying over them in the middle of the black flames

The enemy ninjas shouted back and tried to attack him but they couldn't see him clearly in the night while Naruto could feel the chakra and now he was able to see it thanks to his new Sharingan eyes and every time they attacked him the Hokage filled the place with more black flames turning the encampment into a slaughterhouse that took at least half of the army out in a couple of hours forcing the invaders ninja to turn back and return to their village

When the sunlight filled the land they were able to see the real impact Naruto did in combat because the field Iwagakure's ninjas used as encampment was completely surrounded by black flames that burned anything even normal fire and said flames didn't need anything to burn for seven days before extinguishing themselves at said time

The Konoha's ninjas were worried for their leader but he was found by his students before one of the first black flames sleeping in a meditation position, and while that amazing display of power was incredible they had many questions about the source of those flames

…

..

Far away Onoki was furious because thanks to Konoha he had already lost like four thousand ninja and the worst of it he was being challenged by Minato's brat and the kid seemed to be good better than he thought at first because he believed his title was thanks to his father merits but it seemed the new Hokage was a high-class ninja on his own

"Father I can lead the army to face him" said Kitsuchi offering his help because he was a respected leader between the troops and the likely Tsuchikage in case of Onoki's death so he had the respect of the ninjas and the power to fight an enemy but the question was…Was Kitsuchi a kage level ninja? Because it seemed this Naruto brat was

"I hate this leaf's blondes!" shouted an exasperated Onoki because if Naruto could do that level of destruction on his own he suspected the kid might be too much for anyone else to handle but if he fought there was the possibility of losing and that was the problem with the position Naruto put him into; he could overpower him sending most of his forces and he would die eventually of would be forced to retreat but that would cost him a great amount of ninjas and would be a very negative move for the foreign opinion making it look like a coward

The old kage hated this because with Naruto's incorporation to the battle field he was forced to do the same or exposing his army to another yellow flash incident that ended costing him the last war when that blond took out battalion after battalion until there was just one left and he didn't have other choice but to surrender

"I'll be going but there is something I must do before leaving…please call Kurotsuchi" asked the old third Tsuchikage who was realizing maybe he was dwelling too much in the past and then he remembered something the old Sarutobi said when they signed the peace papers after the last war '_You lost because of your old ways…you must know that the next generations will always surpass the previous ones so you can't kept them low and weak you have to give them the chance to grow and prove themselves_' and after that he made a decision '_I hope you were right on that old man_' thought with mixed feelings

After a whole week Onoki felt ready to go but he couldn't leave the dread feeling behind and even when he was confident on his own powers he had the feeling he wouldn't survive the encounter with the Hokage but things needed to be done differently because in the last war Minato took most of his army out and maybe this time his life was the only that needed to be taken to spare his men '_I must be getting really old to be this soft_' thought the third Tsuchikage while he was leading a small battalion towards grass village

At the moment his troops were standing some distance before Grass village he saw the young Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki son of his mortal enemy Minato Namikaze both of them were very similar but it was known their fighting styles were absolutely different yet both of them were quite skilled on their own fields because while Minato was a speed and seals specialist Naruto was one of the most talented ninjutsu specialists in the whole world "Tsuchikage-dono I offer to you the chance to stop this nonsense and go back to your village…the countries limits had been agreed by all of the continent's feudal lords so there is no need to ignite war spark" stated Naruto in a loud voice making most of ninjas on both sides to hear him

Onoki wouldn't admit it but he pondered the offer because he didn't really wanted to die but go back at this point would mean a heavy blow for Iwagakure's reputation so it was better if he died fighting and the next leader blamed him for all of this "That is not an option for me" was the Tsuchikage's answer before he shouted to his men "All of you stand behind this fight is between that yellow brat and me!" giving his last order as the Tsuchikage

The little man flew towards Naruto who just asked for some energy and flew away from the Grass Village to don't harm it during the fight which started quickly when Onoki charged one of his legendary Dust Release Technique in a sphere shape before shooting the blast pointing at Naruto but the blond revealed a pair or mature Sharingan eyes and then opened his hands splitting the wind, earth and fire from the dust release technique making Onoki and the whole platoon of Rock's ninjas mouths fall because the dust release was the most powerful and devastating element in the world and the Hokage just disabled it with his bare hands

That was the precise moment a realization came to the old man's mind '_There is no way for me to win_' thought before composing himself and gathering most of his chakra "You will not beat me without a fight!" shouted Onoki before dashing for Naruto

When the Tsuchikage shot his attack Naruto was in heaven because everything was awesome with his new Sharingan eyes and while before that he was able to feel and control nature's forces now he was able to see it in great detail and that dust release combination looked amazing letting him see the exact proportion of each element

After that moment of wonder about the sharingan's advantages he realized his rival was coming at him flying at high speed and was using an earth release move to harden his fist but he just moved with the wind to get out of harm's way then the old man tried to hold him with an earth golem but Naruto took control of the creature and tried to make it hit his caster so Iwa's leader had to use the Earth Release: Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique to make it fall to the ground and keep fighting

When he realized Naruto's elemental ability was unbeatable he thought he should try to fight quick and close but the blond's flying speed was too much even for him so he was getting out of options while the blond did nothing but dodge and gather some chakra. The problem was while Onoki assessed the fight this way his men were watching the Hokage toying him without even trying to fight back and that wasn't a pretty sight so their moral was quite low

The little man tried to touch Naruto and manipulate his weight but Naruto was faster and despite his great experience fighting on the air this cursed Hokage had beaten him in terms of speed so he was getting desperate for some move that changed the flow of the combat and without thinking clearly he tried to distract Naruto targeting Grass village with a quick dust release technique but he didn't count with Naruto's ability because he was able to feel him molding the elemental chakra to form dust and when he aimed for the village a lightning bolt struck him before anyone else could react and left him dead and badly burnt on the ground

The rock shinobi were speechless because they had just witnessed as the Hokage toyed with their leader and at the moment he endangered the people he was protecting he just obliterated him with a freaking lightning bolt! How could a man make a storm from nothing and control a lightning bolt! That was a force of nature and was over men's control or at least that was they believed before this fight

After that exchange Naruto got back to the ground level and faced the Iwagakure shinobi gathered around Onoki's corpse "You can take his body and go in peace…there is no need for more deaths today" stated Naruto before some Jounin took their leader dead body and all of them went back to Iwa

Then the blond went back to the grass and the people had a very big celebration that day because they had withstood the rock village's attack so they were very happy but Naruto called his men back and returned to Konoha before Grass people and ninja thanked him for his help. Naruto went quickly to Konoha because despite his victory he couldn't be happy after Sarutobi's death and all the Grass people seemed to have forgotten that so he just went back as soon as possible

"Sensei…I need to talk to you" said Hinata when Naruto was about to leave his office. After the fight he led Konoha's troops back and they arrived after four hours of travel so it was around ten in the night and he decided to check the office finding Hinata waiting for him at the door "I know you have Itachi Uchiha's Saringan eyes" stated Hinata surprising Naruto who was curious on how she found out "You have two Sharingan eyes that much was visible to me during your fight…then it's chakra signature is similar to Sasuke's but it's much more powerful so there was just one option left and he's known for being your friend so it's not something that out of my mind" explained the young Hyuga to his sensei who was surprised and proud

"I'm surprised and confused…let's go to my house because it's not a safe place to discuss this kind of thing" stated Naruto before closing the office and leading her student to his home in a silent walk; the Hokage's mind was wandering in many topics but the main one what that girl at his side

When they entered the house Naruto did some hand seals and offered her something for eating while they sat on the living room "Hinata I've known you and your teammates but while your goal was becoming powerful and leading your clan I don't know what you really want" said Naruto beginning the talk saying what was on his mind

"It's…I'm not so clear on that topic but in the last fight Sandaime-sama fought in an outstanding level making us realize we're quite weak because we thought he had become closer to our level with his age bit then you and the Tsuchikage faced each other and while his attacks were awesome and he used the legendary dust release you practically toyed with him so I wanted to know your real power" confessed Hinata trying to give some sense to that speech because she wasn't so clear with her goals for life

"Well you know…at first I had the same worries that you have" confessed Naruto surprising Hinata "I was younger than you but everybody seemed so strong and out of my reach…Itachi and me were good for our age but in the world out there age doesn't matter it's just who's more powerful" related Naruto remembering some tough missions "The third trained me from very early age but while I was a genin with Chunin combat level the rest of the world had dangerous enemies and even Shisui-sensei was in a whole different level" added Naruto with a smile "but then we got promoted and Itachi and I took different paths because he trained for ANBU while I traveled around the world with Jiraiya…I was always good with elemental ninjutsu but knowing about the way other people see and understand the elements gave me the ability to feel nature and with time I was able to make it follow my orders and in that moment I realized about my true potential because if I could control any element I would have no weakness…or at least that is what I thought at first" explained Naruto trying to not laugh about his past thoughts "Jiraiya showed me otherwise and in the end he convinced me to train my body and become strong enough to fight without my elemental techniques so I developed a taijutsu style with the toad's help that used my elemental proficiency using wind to make my movements faster and earth to make my hits heavier…in the end I learnt about life and the world so I decided I would be the Hokage to make the things go the way I wanted and trained hard to reach that goal" told Naruto to the younger girl who listened very interested

"I want to know if I have some talent to become a great ninja" said Hinata a little depressed because things weren't going fast enough for her liking "Well you are quite young but that kind of fast strength is only attained by forbidden techniques and doing some serious sacrifices" answered Naruto being very honest with her student "Look Hinata…the reason for me to get the Sharingan was to prepare for war because with the last fight I might have bought between three or five years of peace but there is going to be a war and I'll prepare in all the ways I am able to protect Konoha but there is no need for you to be here between that in fact I should order you to travel around the world to grow and know other people" said Naruto mostly to himself

….

..

The next day Kiba, Hinata and Shino were being told by Naruto about his idea of having them travel and train around the world with the only condition to return when the war started; Hinata already knew about that so she accepted immediately, Shino wasn't too attached to anyone so he did the same but Kiba took a little longer to think but he ended agreeing too so in that night team 8 was officially disbanded till the war

Hiashi was very angry with that decision but Hinata was just following the Hokage's orders so he had no room to make something about that

At the end of the day Itachi and Naruto were sparring and just like in the old times this was an only physical combat match because they couldn't attract attention but that didn't meant it was easy or simple thanks to the Sharingan that let both of them to know a counter move for their opponent attack meaning they had to think on their own for a counter to the enemy's counter and all of that in a full speed combat "Are you sure they are going to be fine?" asked Itachi while he dodged a punch

"They're very skilled and I trust them" was Naruto's answer before pushing Itachi's back with his own body in a very A-like maneuver

"I heard about your encounter with the Raikage" commented Itachi after that move that was from his style that used incredible speeds and strength to make any hit lethal

* * *

**Author comments**: I don't know how many chapters ago someone asked about Naruto's sage mode... Let me explain a little about Naruto's powers

He has a natural ablitiy to feel and control any elemental technique or cast them with just his chakra but in the "Normal Mode" he can use just one at time (for example he can use just one chakra sphere) while in sage mode he can cast and control any of the five elements (at the same time)

Naruto has a good partner/friends relationship with the Kyubi so he doesn't like to "take" his power from him meaning he doesn't uses his chakra but they work together in the sage mode bacause when he "tried to merge" with the toads they were exposed to the Kyubi's chakra (Kurama didn't reject them) and it's toxicity hurt them so in the end Naruto made the Kyubi stay still to gather the natural energy and like their chakra was connected he would receive "nature chakra" without interruption during the fights

I know Naruto is very powerful but i'm trying to make Akatsuki a real threat meaning hard fights with Pain or Tobi...I already said Orochimaru's death was to avoid Edo Tensei (i don't like making the same fights twice) so you wont be reading about any zombie ninja in this story

Let me know your thoughts about the story and this information (Would you like some info-cap at the end of every chaper?)


	9. Chapter 9

Hello guys! I hope you are doing well

Thanks for all your support on the reviews/Favorites/follow

I wanted to explain something related to my redaction, at first I think someone said I used too many commas then I somehow ended not using them at all and probably that was a mistake but aside from that I must explain the last chapter was made in a hurry (I had the whole idea on my mind and wanted to write it quickly before going to sleep). From this point I'm gonna try to write "normal" using commas or points when I see fit (and I expect your comments on that)

For the person who complained for the point or space after the end of a paragraph, sorry pal but I just don't like it and I don't using even when I write in Spanish (It's my personal way of doing things)

I hope you like the story so far, this chapter ends with a cliffhanger but I'm already starting the next one so it shouldn't take too long

* * *

**Chapter 9**

When Naruto got a letter from Yagura, he got worried so he opened it and red about Utakata's disappearance five days ago '_Kurama try to communicate with Saiken_' asked the Hokage to the Kyubi who was on it

The blond knew he had to do something but Jiraiya had already left the village five days ago to meet some of his agents in the other countries and get information so he couldn't just leave the office because despite Itachi's presence the other people didn't know about this and would make him look as a bad leader

So he tried to make some plans while the ninjas he called were on their way "I hope this works" whished Naruto thinking about the pros and cons of this plan '_it may not be the best option but it's the only I have at the moment_' concluded finally after realizing there wasn't any another choice

After some minutes Kakashi, Sasuke, Neji and Shizune were standing in front of his desk "I need for you to travel towards the limit with the Water country to meet with the Akatsuki response team, your mission will be to assist them in the Six's tails jinchuuriki recovery" informed the fifth Hokage before adding a critical piece of information "Time is essential because it has been five days since his disappearance so we can estimate one or two days for travel and then the extraction should take between five to six days without Kisame's chakra" said finally Naruto making the four ninjas before him scatter

….

..

After Onoki's death at Naruto's hands, the hidden stone village was a peaceful place because the warfare actions ended with the third Tsuchikage's life and just as expected the entire invasion's actions were established as Onoki's plans and now Kitsuchi sent a scroll to the Grass and Leaf village assuring them he wasn't planning on extend their country limits and apologizing for the Third Hokage's death

Naruto knew it was just politics and left that topic as closed while far away A was angry because the blond Hokage had just changed the way of wars and now before he could plan anything he would have to find a way to beat him first, with the problem that he still didn't know how did he reject that lariat in the first place

But in this moments the blond's mind was with the last team he sent on a mission to rescue Utakata, he knew the Akatsuki had some days of advantage over them but without Itachi and Kisame's absence he hoped they could make it in time

…

Pain was looking to his remaining troops, the mad bomber Deidara, the master puppeteer Sasori, the bounty hunter Kakuzu, the immortal jashinist Hidan and last but not least his angel Konan. Together the six of them were the minimal amount of ninjas to extract a bijou and that meant the extraction took a very long time

"There are some ninjas coming" warned Zetsu coming from the cave wall getting Pain's attention

"How many?" asked the rinnegan wielder thinking about a solution to this situation because they still needed some hours to finish the extraction "I could see eight of them two from Kirigakure and six from Konohagakure" answered the plant-ninja

"These Konoha's guys are becoming a nuisance" said Kakuzu knowing about Konoha's might and all the times they got in their way

"Unfortunately we can't face Konoha directly" was Pain answer trying to leave that topic settled because he didn't like to admit he couldn't destroy some opposing force "We have to come with a solution for our current problem" added Pain changing the subject "Kakuzu do you have enough Chakra to fight these ninja?" a nod was all the answer the old man gave back "Then we're going to use my jutsu to delay them until we finish a decoy" stated Pain as final

When both teams were running they stopped when Neji's said so because there were some strange things hidden in the ground "It seems there is some puppets on the ground" warned them before a man wearing a black robe with red clouds appeared before them "Konoha's blood limits are really troublesome" said Sasori as a greeting "But they make quite good puppets" and then two puppets appeared, they were dressed like ANBU but one of them had a couple of Byakugan eyes while the other had two Sharingan

"What is the meaning of this!" shouted Sasuke looking a fellow clan member turned into a puppet

"Akasuna no Sasori" said Shizune before explaining "he's one of Suna's most dangerous criminals due to his mastery over puppetry to the point he's able to turn a corpse into a puppet keeping blood line abilities as if they were his own" told the red headed woman what she knew about this man

Sasuke charged towards the enemy without waiting for any plan so Kakashi and Neji went to protect him "Be careful!" shouted Shizune before taking a breath and adding "He's also know for using poison coated weapons so everything is potentially poisoned" warned Shizune making Kakashi curse because that turned this whole mission a very shitty one '_we could end losing many people to save just one…if we're lucky_' thought Kakashi

Fortunately Sasuke's speed was able to match his anger and he used his Sharingan to find and cut the chakra wire Sasori was using to control the puppets, but then he took control of the weapons hidden in the ground, forcing Neji to get next to Sasuke and use a specially large Kaiten to protect both of them from the projectiles

Tenzo tried to make profit of the attention Sasuke and Neji were drawing towards them using a wood release technique to constrict him but the puppeteer escaped from Hiruko before Mei could melt him with a lava release jutsu

"Despite my dislike for Konoha, I think we can make a deal here" said a new voice making all the ninjas open their eyes when another guy appeared wearing the Akatsuki robe but that wasn't the most significant part of the sight because he was holding an unconscious Utakata "Don't worry he's alive" assured him with a serious tone

Kakuzu disliked this plan but orders were orders and Pain had made a decision, he just hoped it didn't cost more members for Akatsuki because losing two in the same day specially Kisame was a really big waste of time and time was money "We can't face all of you at the moment but if you let us go we'll let you take him" offered the bounty hunter making the other ninjas to exchange some questioning looks between themselves

"Our main goal is saving Utakata's life so we're agreeing but we'll make sure he is real and is alive" stated Mei getting kakuzu's approval so she asked Haku to check him because he knew his chakra signature and after making sure this man had the same chakra he remembered from Utakata and stating he was alive he took him and both Akatsuki ninja disappeared "It seems our mission was successful but go to Kiri with us before returning to Konoha" asked Mei to Kakashi getting his famous eye-smile as answer

…..

..

Naruto left a while candle on Sarutobi's name as he did everyday he finished his work at the office and went to his house but this time someone met him at the memorial "Do you come here every day?" asked Tsunade not believing someone other than Asuma or Jiraiya would have that sadness for his death

"He was my first master and guide…while many people saw me as the Kyubi's jinchuuriki or the Yondaime's son he was the first to see me as Naruto and recognizing my own potential beyond any shadow from the past" answered Naruto remembering some fond memories

"Aren't you going to force me to stay here or send me on any mission?" finally asked Tsunade the question he was asking herself since many days ago

"There is no need" replied the blond Hokage "While you were in retirement I got a pretty good medic that is on the field most of time and your combat level is Jounin rank at best so I don't need to force you to do something" was the harsh but honest answer for Naruto because if it would have been thirty or twenty years ago he would begged Tsunade to stay in the village but now Kabuto was a promising combat-field ninja and Shizune asked to be added to the ninja ranks again

To the blonde it was like I'm sorry but the world got over you in these last decades but it was the truth and she had two choices: she could be sad and run away from Konoha once more or she could try to get to her level and become a great ninja again "Naruto…How can you be so strong being that young?" questioned Tsunade because she heard from Jiraiya about Orochimaru's defeat and Sarutobi's comments about the jinchuuriki's superiority in terms of power

"I don't know if there is a particular reason but I always gave my full effort to get strong on my own way without following my dad's or the old man's styles…at first I wanted to be stronger than Sarutobi to protect him but then I grew and traveled with Jiraiya so my conclusion about the world was it's not a fair place but if you have the power you can stop abuses and unfairness so I would have to become the most powerful in the world to make things right and for that I trained very hard day after day" told Naruto looking at the Hokage monument for inspiration because those men probably had the same dream and gave their lives protecting it

"I think I'm going to stay here but I need some time to get ready for the ninja life after so many years of wander around the world" said Tsunade before giving a grateful nod and leaving the memorial

"One of your students has returned old man…now we're three again" said Naruto before leaving to his home but today he went with a smile on his face because he felt that talk had been able of honor Sarutobi's memory with Tsunade's decision

…

A week later Kakashi, Sasuke, Neji and Shizune got back; they were happy with their success and Naruto shared that feeling because he couldn't help but feel satisfaction of the failure of people that chased so tormented souls as the jinchuuriki's

The blond thanked to the ninjas for the quick response and gave them a free week as an additional reward so Neji went back to his clan and Shizune to her master without knowing the new determination she had but Sasuke had to vent some anger training, and that left Kakashi standing in the office "Is there any problem Kakashi?" asked Naruto

"Well I have a package from Kabuto" said Kakashi giving him a storage scroll that he would check later "But that is not the only reason for you to stay behind right?" asked again the Hokage making Kakashi smile because the copy ninja was absolutely sure about Naruto's power but this was the best proof about his mind capabilities "I have a bad feeling about this last mission" pronounced the masked ninja before Naruto did some seals to avoid any spy to hear that talk

….

..

"What is going to be our next move?" asked Pain looking at Tobi who was on a window in the tower he kept his paths

Nagato would never say this if he wasn't so lost with all the new events because he believed with Sunagakure's destruction would be a new world war but surprisingly a young Kage as the fifth Hokage was able to change everything risking a duel with the Tsuchikage; the self-proclaimed god would never admit it but after watching the fight between him and Kisame he wasn't so confident to face him in Konoha so he wouldn't attack his village unless he had some very good plan

"It's complicated…the one and three tails are very well guarded in Kirigakure, the same goes for the eight tails in Kumogakure and there is no need to explain the situation with the nine tails…the only option at the moment is the seven tails but the waterfall is very close to Konoha and we have to make a plan to distract them while we extract the bijou" said Tobi assessing the current situation

Tobi knew there was an option but he wanted to save it as a last resource because he still had some of Orochimaru's followers fooled in Kiri thanks to the Sharingan illusionary capabilities but while he could make some kind of riot it would work just once

"It seems we'll be keeping a low profile for a while" stated Pain when Tobi said nothing after some minutes before taking his leave, the rinnegan wielder was confident in the power of his paths and secrets so he was invincible within the rain village but if he left there would be a chance of being beaten so he had to stay until he found a way to deal with that jinchuuriki outside of his village "Konan…could you find something for me?" asked the real Nagato to his guardian angel who was intrigued with this development hoping to find what was going on his mind

'_Maybe a meeting with this new Hokage would be interesting…to check by myself if he's at the level of his father_' was pondering the maimed Uchiha while he looked at the never ending rain Nagato used as a detection barrier

…

..

Naruto was on a very special training field it was the forest of death and around him there were many performed trees "You are getting the power but they are too slow!" shouted Naruto before a bluish spear almost hit his torso if it wasn't for a quick spin he did "Still slow!" said the Hokage before dodging a new projectile

After some more attacks he felt her chakra get very low so he rushed to her position catching her before falling to the ground "You are pushing yourself too hard" said the jinchuuriki to the sleepy Hinata on his arms

All of this started when Hinata said she wanted to become stronger so the Hokage helped to assess her strong and weak points getting to the conclusion she could be an excellent long range sharpshooter so they had to do it in three steps the first was increasing the range of her Byakugan and that took around three weeks and while most Hyugas could see in a radius of one kilometer Hinata was able to see around three and she could double that focusing or zooming a specific point then it was the projectile the best way to make it was with chakra so they tried with neutral chakra first but it didn't stay stable being so far so the next option was elemental chakra and using her water affinity she was able to make powerful spears, at the moment she was working on the speed of said weapons and the last step was stealth to erase her and her attack's chakra signature

The next day was when the Akatsuki response team arrived to Konoha with a somber look on their faces, when Naruto asked what happened Mei gave him a scroll with Yagura's signature that explained everything about Utakata….the fake one, the scroll said the jinchuuriki's chakra matched with their records and while nobody could find the Six tails chakra some assumed it was normal after a partial extraction of his bijou but after two weeks of being unconscious an ANBU surprised him acting as sleep and pinned him against the wall and in that moment the medics realized this Utakata didn't bleed from his wounds instead he excreted a white substance that made Yagura suspect so he questioned him and realized he was an imposter so he beheaded him on the spot

'_Kakashi was right_' was Naruto's first thought after getting that letter

The ninjas were confused when Naruto closed his eyes and took a long breath '_Akatsuki may have won this time with a trap but I'll get them for this…Utakata's life will not be cheap_' promised himself before setting his head straight to talk with the ninja team "These are very sad news but there is nothing we can do about it so I recommend for you to train and be ready to face them the next time they show up" told Naruto being very formal because he wanted them gone…

…he had a plan and wanted to execute it as soon as possible

…

That night he was talking with Jiraiya in Myoboku about his plan "You seem to have a lot of faith in this plan" said Jiraiya when Naruto told him everything '_to come up with a plan like this in just one day after getting a sad letter is amazing…_' thought Jiraiya to himself

"I'm sure about this because I've been thinking the whole day in this" said Naruto before explaining the reasons behind his plan "To take Utakata from the inside or Kirigakure without alerting anyone it must have been a person able to travel without being seen or detected and the masked man, Tobi, is the only that fits so it's probable that he'll try to get the seven tails after making some kind of diversion to delay our ninjas but what he won't know is that the trap was ready before that" finished Naruto with an expecting smile because he wanted to hear Jiraiya's assessment of this trap

"I think it's possible" concluded Jiraiya making Naruto jump very happy so they talked about the details for many hours before returning to their respective places

…

Naruto was training very hard to get faster at drawing the elements of nature on his normal mode because he didn't like to get too reliant on the Sage Mode, which was like his triumph card

He was so focused on his training and his emotions that he didn't realized he was being watched until another person spoke "Shouldn't the Hokage be resting?" asked Anko looking at the destruction caused by Naruto's attacks

"There is no such rule" was Naruto's short answer before manipulating some earth to form a column before him and tear it apart with a punch "What are you trying to do?" questioned again the only snake summoner remaining

"Trying to figure how to harm an intangible sharingan wielder" was Naruto's answer that took Anko for surprise to the point she stood there waiting for him to say it was a joke but he was being honest

"Well I don't know if it's a great compliment but you seem to be like my old master…he was very smart and while he was very powerful he was always looking to exploit his enemies' weaknesses to ensure his victory… so I'm sure you'll find a way to do it" remembered Anko in loud voice before getting away from there to let him train '_If such a powerful man exist you could be the only able to beat him_' feared herself on the way back to her house

Naruto was anxious because there was a possibility to finish all this conflict with Tobi once for all '_Father give me the strength and wisdom to fight this man_' prayed Naruto after finishing his night training

Within the next few days Naruto was very disconnected from the rest of people but many just assumed he was very busy but some of the people that knew him suspected that there was something happening

Naruto was trying to keep himself busy so he had called Tsunade to find some ways to find if one of them was being impersonated by and imposter and don't fall with the same trap again because Yagura's letter said this replica had the same chakra and the same smell so the normal ways to identify someone would not be enough to crack this new method Akatsuki had developed

The blonde medic had some theories but it was hard to assess them without the replica Yagura destroyed on his rage so they would just have to work with the information they had and while they were talking about that, the blond Hokage just disappeared in a puff of smoke

When Naruto reappeared he was on the waterfall village watching as the masked man known as Tobi was carrying an unconscious woman on his shoulder and Jiraiya wasn't visible so he was still following the plan, the blond took some seconds to gather natural energy so his opponent couldn't feel his chakra and then charged towards him hitting his head very hard and forcing Tobi to drop Fuu

"It's payback time bastard!" said Naruto with a smile


End file.
